With a drive to long-off in the 19th over, Virat Kohli nudged a single that sent the crowd at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur into a frenzy on Wednesday night. It was just
one run, but one that took the ‘Chasemaster’ to his ninth IPL century which is the most by any player in the tournament’s history.
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After registering consecutive ducks in his previous two IPL 2026 outings, many expected an emotional celebration to mark the comeback.
Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case.
Like the seasoned campaigner he is, Kohli chose to soak in the moment quietly. At one stage, he even appeared reluctant to celebrate the vintage knock against Kolkata Knight Riders. As his Royal Challengers Bengaluru teammates and the crowd rose to applaud him, Kohli simply acknowledged the appreciation with a gentle raise of the bat and without taking off his helmet. He quickly turned his focus back to the job at hand – to get RCB over the line and get them two points to help take a giant step towards securing playoffs spot.
And he did so in the company of Jitesh Sharma as the defending champions recorded a six-wicket while successfully chasing 193.
So why the subdued celebration?
“Well, the celebration wasn’t a big one because we know the importance of the points right now. For me, it’s a conscious effort to try and contribute to the team’s scores. And I know if I bat for long enough in the game, our chances of winning become higher,” Kohli said after collecting his player-of-the-match award.
Kohli admitted that failing to score in his previous two matches had been bothering him.
“The fact that I didn’t get many runs in the last two games was, it eats me up in a way that I know I can play well and I’m hitting the ball well. But then when you don’t carry on and you haven’t created the impact for the team, it bothers you because that’s basically been the goal all these years, trying to improve so that you can be the best version for your team when you play out there and make an impact,” he said.
“So, century or no century, I think the more important thing is finishing the game, making sure that I was out there till the end to get those two points, which again, puts us at the top of the table,” he added.
