On Thursday evening, in Hyderabad, against the home team Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) star batsman Virat Kohli recorded his 6th IPL century, the joint-highest in the IPL along with Chris Gayle.
Opening the batting with Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli cracked 100 runs off 63 balls in an opening stand of 172 runs in 17.5 overs in the chase of 185. RCB skipper Faf du Plessis scored 71 runs off 47 balls and RCB won the match with 8 wickets in hand and 4 balls to spare.
Virat Kohli creamed 12 fours and smoked 4 sixes in his innings, one of which was a gigantic 103 metre hit, and another helped him bring his century up against Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Virat Kohli’s century overshadowed a brilliant hundred from SRH’s Heinrich Klaasen, who scored 104 runs off 51 balls.
Watch the highlights of Virat Kohli’s sensational century vs SRH here:
💯 Bow down to the greatness of 👑 #ViratKohli 👏
He is now tied with Chris Gayle for the most #TATAIPL hundreds 🔥#SRHvRCB #IPLonJioCinema #IPL2023 #EveryGameMatters pic.twitter.com/OGxWztuhk6
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) May 18, 2023
𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙆𝙤𝙝𝙡𝙞 𝙎𝙪𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙘𝙮 🙇@RCBTweets' stalwart rises to the occasion with a 🤌 50 👑 #SRHvRCB #IPLonJioCinema #TATAIPL #IPL2023 #EveryGameMatters | @imVkohli pic.twitter.com/jO9JnBI2fT
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) May 18, 2023
The Beauty (& the Beast) of #TATAIPL 😎#SRHvRCB #IPLonJioCinema #Kohli https://t.co/qfCZLvS2f6 pic.twitter.com/Ju0rBsfEIA
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) May 18, 2023
The King looks in the mood tonight 😍👑
Is another #ViratKohli chase masterclass on the cards in #SRHvRCB? 😉#TATAIPL #IPLonJioCinema #IPL2023 #EveryGameMatters | @imVkohli @RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/TtGlXxVrp9
— JioCinema (@JioCinema) May 18, 2023
With this victory, RCB move up to the 4th spot in the points table, pushing down Mumbai Indians. Both RCB and MI have 14 points in 13 matches, but RCB have a better NRR of +0.180 compared to MI’s -0.128.
This victory by RCB has hurt plenty of other teams as well, and not just SRH. CSK and LSG, who are 2nd and 3rd respectively, have 15 points in 13 matches. Should they lose their last league game and RCB and/or MI win their last league game, they will be pushed further below. And not only their Top 2 chances will go up in smoke, but they could also be eliminated from the playoffs totally.
RR, KKR, and PBKS are all on 12 points in 13 matches. So this victory of RCB has also dented their chances greatly since they can only get to 14 points at maximum while both RCB and MI can reach 16 points. So even if RR, KKR, PBKS reach 14 points, they would stand eliminated if one or both of RCB and MI win their last match.
This win of RCB over SRH has the other six teams who are in contention for 3 playoff spots – CSK, LSG, MI, RR, KKR, and PBKS.
