It was night when the King faced his heir-apparent. And unlike what most expected, especially after that record successive ton from Virat Kohli, Royal Challengers Bangalore succumbed and thereby fell out of contention for a place in the playoffs in IPL 2023. It was the Prince who struck down RCB’s chances. Emulating his “idol”, Shubman Gill too smashed his second-straight century as Qualifier 1 bound Gujarat Titans wrapped up a six-wicket win at the Chinnaswamy. Both the centuries were spectacular in their own way, yet there was one that made the bigger difference and former Australian cricketer Tom Moody made an outrageous remark as he compared the two hundreds.
For player who was criticised for the major part of IPL 2023 who is troubling strike rate and T20 batting abilities, Kohli roared back to silence them in style. After smashing a century of 62 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad in RCB’s penultimate game, he emulated the same in the do-or-die game against Gujarat Titans. The knock took him top of table, past Chris Gayle, for the most tons scored by a batter in IPL history. Kohli has seven of them now.
But the century just wasn’t enough. Like Kohli, there were talks around Gill’s numbers outside Ahmedabad. His numbers at the Narendra Modi Stadium this season are in fact the best ever by a batter at any particular venue, but Gill has struggled outside that venue. But with an unbeaten 104 off just 52, he shut those talks as he wrapped up GT’s league phase in style.
Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Moody was in complete awe of Gill’s batting. While he did hail Kohli’s knock, he couldn’t stop gushing over Gill’s composed batting and relaxed approach to the chase. The former Sunrisers Hyderabad coach then pointed out the “significant difference” between the two knocks saying that it was down to the number of sixes the two batters hit. While Kohli hit just one, Gill smashed eight of them.
“He is such a delight to watch. He is so composed at the crease. You look at his facial expression and his body language, he looks so much in control. He has got the game. Eight sixes! That was the difference in the two hundreds. Both were brilliant hundreds. But Kohli only hit one six. Gill hit eight of them and was batting at a strike rate of 200. That’s a significant difference. And that coming in a chase, hats off to him,” he said.
Gill and GT now shift focus to Chepauk where they will face Chennai Super Kings in Qualifier 1 on Tuesday. Kohli meanwhile is reported to be heading to England tomorrow for the World Test Championship final.
