Virat Kohli whacked a record seventh century in the cash-rich league but to only see Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) miss another shot to IPL title as they were knocked out of IPL 2023's playoff race by Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Sunday (May 21). Shubman Gill's towering ton dampened Kohli's century which helped GT thrash RCB by six wickets. RCB's elimination came as a blessing in disguise for Mumbai Indians (MI) who became the fourth team to join CSK, GT and LSG in final-four list. On the same day, the Rohit Sharma's MI bulldozed Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets in a do-or-die match at the Wankhede. But despite their victory, the playoff spot was only confirmed after RCB's defeat to GT.
Riding on Kohli's rocksolid 101 off 61 RCB posted a dominating total of 197/5. But Gill smoked back-to-back tons which overshadowed Kohli's century and GT chased down the total with six wickets and five balls to spare.
Right after the RCB's defeat, MI players, who were watching the match live in a watch party, burst out in wild celebration after Gill hit the winning six for defending champions GT. The likes of Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav were spotted hooting and hugging each other after Faf Du Plessis' brigade six-wicket loss to GT.
Watch the video here…
MI would look to make the most of playoff berth and extend their IPL title count. Talking about the MI versus SRH match, while chasing a colossal target of 201, Cameron Green struck his maiden IPL ton to take MI to finishing line. He walked down into the middle after the dismissal of Ishan Kishan (14 off 12). He joined his skipper Rohit and steadied MI's boat and stitched together a 128-run partnership. Rohit was dismissed by Mayank Dagar after belting his first half century in the ongoing IPL (56 off 37) and in the process become only the second Indian after Virat Kohli to amass 11000 runs in T20s. Green continued his blitzkrieg after Rohit's dismissal. He reached his fifty in just 20 balls and then continued to hammer the opposition and stayed till the end with Suryakumar Yadav (25 off 16) to win the match for MI.
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