Virat Kohli hit his seventh Indian Premier League century, his second consecutive hundred, in match number 70, the last of the league phase, of IPL 2023 between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Gujarat Titans (GT) at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.

As he reached the milestone, Kohli did not do a grand celebration, instead just raised his bat to acknowledge the applause from the stands. Ansuhka Sharma, Bollywood star and Kohli’s wife, blew a kiss as Hardik Pandya walked up and patted him on the back.

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With the rain gods threatening to spoil RCB’s play-off plans during the day, the match that started half an hour late saw Kohli bring back his 2016 avatar. He held all the aces during his knock that had 13 fours and a six.

His innings was priceless in the context that none of the other RCB batters could even reach 30 and just like the good old days, ‘King Kohli’ set the narrative by playing with line, length and minds of the bowlers.

This is his seventh IPL hundred and he has now surpassed Chris Gayle as the batter with highest number of tournament tons.

Virat Kohli slammed his second hundred of IPL 2023, coming in as many innings, and carried his bat through the innings to be 101 not out off 61 balls.

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Right from the word go, Kohli hit ground running after a long wait of 55 minutes for the game to start due to rain and unleashed a masterclass in front of a hugely supportive home crowd through his unbeaten 101 off 61 balls, also his seventh IPL hundred.

He mesmerised everyone with his magical bottom-handed shots, controlled footwork and usage of wrists to hit 13 fours and a six at a strike-rate of 165.6, taking the side to a big total despite wickets falling around him, and went off the field to a rousing standing ovation from the crowd.

Kohli joined the boundary-hitting party by flicking and pulling twice for three well-timed boundaries, before du Plessis ended the over by lofting over mid-off for four to end fourth over by taking 17 runs. Kohli took a four each off Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmad to end power-play at 62/0.

Despite, Fa du PLesssi and Glenn Maxweel’s departure, Kohli smashed a drive past long-off, before reaching his fifty in 35 balls. He found support from Michael Bracewell, who began with three crisp boundaries through the off-side.

Kohli slammed Mohit over extra cover for four, before Bracewell capitalised on his slower deliveries to pick consecutive boundaries in a 15-run 13th over. Bracewell’s handy knock came to an end when the top-edge on a miscue was caught by Shami off his own bowling and Dinesh Karthik fell for a golden duck off Dayal when the bouncer took a glove edge behind.

Kohli led Bangalore’s recovery by cutting wide of cover and square-driving with perfection off Mohit for a brace of fours in the 16th over. He welcomed Dayal by swivelling hard over deep mid-wicket for six, before clipping him for four.

Kohli flicked sweetly and pulled off Shami for a brace of fours, before reaching his century off 60 balls in the final over, where Anuj Rawat flicked Mohit for six and got a four off a misfield.

(With inputs from Agencies)