Star batter Virat Kohli touched another milestone enroute his match-winning 77 against Punjab Kings on Monday which helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru open their account on the Indian Premier League 2024 points table. (Full IPL 2024 Coverage | More Cricket News)
As Kohli flicked Punjab Kings' paceman Kagiso Rabada in the tenth over to reach his fifty, the former RCB skipper became the first Indian to have a ton of fifty plus innings in T20s. It was his 92nd half-century with the right-hander already having eight centuries in the format.
Overall, Kohli joined Australian batter David Warner and Jamaican superstar Chris Gayle in the elite list of batters with a century of scores of over fifty in the shortest format.
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Chris Gayle has 110 scores of over fifty with 22 of them being centuries, while Warner closely follows the Carribean with 109 fifty-plus innings. Warner has 8 tons and 101 half centuries.
No Indian is anywhere near Kohli in this list with closest being Rohit Sharma with 81 fifty plus scores out of which seven are hundreds.
In the game against the Kings, RCB were set a 177-run target on a slightly tricky M Chinnnaswamy surface, but Kohli was up to the task. The 35-year-old first let his bat do the talking, hitting a stroke-filled 77 off just 49 balls to send a loud and clear message to all those doubting his prowess in the shortest international format.
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He then cheekily used his words, for good measure. Speaking at the post-match presentation after guiding RCB to the victory, Kohli alluded to the conversation around his T20 future. "I know my name is now attached to just promoting the game in different parts of the world when it comes to T20 cricket. I've still got it I guess," he said.
Despite Kohli's brilliance, a no show by the middle order meant RCB had to wait for the late flurry provided by Dinesh Karthik and Mahipal Lomror to get off the mark in the points tally via a tense four-wicket win.
