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A wristy flick past mid-on disconnected his 2nd ball, and each the doubts astir Virat Kohli’s deficiency of runs vanished into bladed air.
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru veteran, who was dismissed for nought successful the past 2 encounters, stamped his people astatine the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium successful Raipur connected Wednesday (May 13, 2026). His calculated unbeaten 105 helped the broadside overhaul the Kolkata Knight Riders’ 192 for 4 with 5 balls to spare.
The pursuit began with fluency contempt the aboriginal dismissal of Jacob Bethell, who was caught and bowled aft pulling a changeable into his helmet.
Kohli’s affirmative commencement astatine the different extremity rubbed disconnected connected Devdutt Padikkal arsenic the southpaw struck 2 consecutive boundaries. The Knight Riders did not assistance their lawsuit with 2 dropped catches. Kohli’s fierce slap done covers burst done the fingers of Rovman Powell, portion Vaibhav Arora was blameworthy of dropping a dolly, offered by Padikkal, astatine heavy quadrate leg.
The duo’s 92-run relation ended erstwhile the No. 3 batter carved 1 consecutive to skipper Ajinkya Rahane astatine cover. But the interruption successful momentum made nary quality to Kohli, who pressed connected the accelerator to get to his ninth IPL period and seal RCB’s eighth win.
Earlier, aft KKR was asked to bat archetypal connected a transportation that was nether covers for a sizeable period, openers Rahane and Finn Allen fell aft brisk starts. Bhuvneshwar Kumar removed Allen with a magnitude shot that cramped him for country and forced an borderline to the wicketkeeper. Rahane was undone by a Josh Hazlewood bouncer that skidded through.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi managed to support the runs flowing with boundaries done the leg-side arsenic Cameron Green settled in.
The acceleration came aft the instauration of the lone spinner, Krunal Pandya, with the duo collecting 2 towering sixes implicit midwicket. But Green was castled by Rasikh Salam aft a 68-run partnership.
Raghuvanshi looked mostly untroubled en way to a 32-ball half-century, his 4th of the season. The right-hander’s sporadic hits to the fence, combined with Rinku Singh’s proactive knock, ensured KKR got to a respectable total, but it proved inadequate erstwhile Kohli marked his guard.
