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Virat Kohli hit a record-extending 8th IPL century on Saturday against the Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur. Kohli, who already sits on top of the most centuries list in the IPL, strengthened his position further with yet another solid knock against RR, a team which won three matches in a row in IPL 2024. This was also the first three-figure score by a batter in the 17th season. Kohli reached his landmark off 67 balls with a single off Nandre Burger.
Overall, this was Kohli‘s 9th century in T20 cricket. His only century in international T20Is came against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup in 2022. With this knock, Kohli also buried ended his barren run at Sawai Mansingh Stadium. This was also the former RCB skipper’s maiden century against the Royals. In the process, Kohli also became the first cricketer to notch up 7500 runs in IPL.
Kohli finished with an unbeaten 113 off 72 balls as RCB posted 183/3 after being sent in to bat by the Royals. Kohli scored a mountain of runs but questions will once again be asked about his strike rate. This was the second time that Kohli batted through the innings and RCB had many wickets in hand without reaching a total close to 200.
When Kohli was on 98, RCB got only four runs in the 19th over of the match with no boundaries in it.
Kohli’s century off 67 balls in fact was his slowest and the joint-slowest ever in the history of IPL. Manish Pandey had scored a 67-ball century way back in 2009. Kohli currently has 316 runs in five matches this year at an average of 105.33 but he is also the only player in the top five run-scorers’ list with a strike rate below 150.
Kohli hit 12 fours and four sixes in his knock. He started off slowly but got going with a couple of sixes against the pacers but once the spinners – Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin – came on, he struggled to hit the boundaries.
Kohli blames pitch for low strike rate
Kohli, however, believed it was a difficult wicket to bat on as the ball was stopping. Initially, he and captain Faf du Plessis, who scored 44 off 33 balls, had a target of 190-plus in mind but they had to revise it once they realised the ball was stopping a bit. “The wicket looks quite different from yp there. It feels like it’s flat. But as soon as you see, the ball starts holding up, things change quickly. Our target was 190-plus in the beginning. But when we saw the slowness of the pitch, me and Faf decided that one of us have to bat through the innings to give us the push at the end. We got 183, which I believe is a good total,” he told the broadcasters during the mid-innings break.
Kohli’s strike rate against the pacers was 171.79 but against spinners he scored only at 139. The former India captain said he was trying to get underneath the ball when Chahal and Ashwin were bowling but it wasn’t possible as it was keeping low.
“It’s just experience and maturity of playing the conditions. Even if there’s dew, the surface is rough and dry, won’t be easy for the batters. I couldn’t get under the ball against Ashwin and Chahal. Couldn’t slog towards mid-wicket, so had to target straight down the ground,” Kohli said.
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