Virat Kohli smashed his second century in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season in what was an excellent exhibition of cricket by the former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper. In hitting his second consecutive century of the season, the King joined an exclusive list of batters which includes only two other batters in the 16 seasons of the cash-rich league.
Kohli is only the third batter to hit consecutive centuries in the IPL. The other two batters to achieve this feat are Rajasthan Royals (RR) opener Jos Buttler and former Delhi Capitals (DC) opener Shikhar Dhawan.
Buttler did this in the previous IPL season (2022) when he was in fine form and dominated the Orange Cap charts with five centuries to his name. He first put the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowlers to the sword and then found the same kind of form in the match against DC.
Dhawan was the first batter to do this when he scored two back-to-back centuries against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Punjab Kings (PBKS).
Kohli rode on a brilliant 101 off 61 to edge past his former teammate Chris Gayle's previous record of most IPL centuries. Gayle has six while the RCB opener now has seven to his name.
Speaking after his innings, Kohli answered his critics with a scathing shot. "Lot of people think that my T20 cricket is declining, I don't think so," Kohli said after hitting his seventh century of the tournament, and second consecutive one as RCB fight for the final playoff spot. He carried the bat with his excellent batting as RCB set a tough target of 197 for the table toppers to chase down.
Meanwhile, riding on six fifties and two centuries Kohli has also crossed the 600-run mark in the ongoing IPL 2023. Notably, this is the third time he has achieved this feat in a span of 16 seasons. Notably, four of Kohli’s seven centuries came in his IPL 2016 season, when he amassed a record-breaking 973 runs which is still the record for most runs by a batsman in an IPL season.
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