Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) batting juggernaut Virat Kohli notched his third half century of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 in the match against Delhi Capitals at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday (April 15).
While opening RCB's innings with skipper Faf Du Plessis, Kohli belted a cracking 50 off 34 which was laden with six fours and a maximum. Before this knock King Kohli also struck fifties against Mumbai Indians (MI) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Kohli, who has now amassed 2500 runs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, is now has launched himself in the second spot in the list of most run getters in the ongoing season of the cash-rich league.
But this is not what caught everyone's eyes rather his animated celebration upon completing his third half century which came at an impressive strike rate of 147. Kohli unleashed a wild celebration while looking at the dressing room where he was seen beating his chest and doing an aggressive gesture with the bat.
Here's the viral video…
Meanwhile, Kohli's wife and Bollywood's popular actor Anushka Sharma, who in attendance to watch the RCB versus DC match, was seen cheering her husband after his back-to-back blitz.
Here's the video…
Follow the RCB vs DC's live score here
Notably, Kohli's half century came after Simon Doull criticised Kohli for his not so impressive strike rate. After Kohli scored 61 off 44 against LSG for a losing cause 138, New Zealand cricketer and IPL commentator Simon Doull said that batters should not play for 'personal milestones. "Virat Kohli took 10 balls to reach from 42 to 50. There is absolutely no room for personal milestones in this game anymore."
Upon being questioned Kohli struck back with a befitting reply and questioned the ongoing notion that strike rate is important in T20 cricket, citing the fact that the role of an anchor in the batting order is more important. Kohli believes that people on the outside do not understand the difficulties in navigating the opponent bowlers after the powerplay which is why batters tend to take it slow.
"Yeah for sure (important anchor role). I completely agree with that, There are many people who because they have not been in that situation themselves, they look at the game differently," Kohli had told Robin Uthappa in an interview for JioCinema.
Talking about the match, riding on Kohli's incredible knock, RCB posted a challenging total of 174/6. Earlier, David Warner won the toss and elected to bat first.
"We are going to bowl first. The ground looks incredible, credit to the staff here. It's about getting one win, the momentum follows from there. We don't want to lose wickets in the powerplay. We have change. Marsh comes in for Powell,” DC skipper Warner said after winning the toss.
“Would have done the same. Hopefully it will turn in the second innings. This stays a good wicket generally. Will be important for me and Virat to assess the conditions early. It's difficult to defend in death overs. We have been good at our home ground as a batting unit. You got to pick your best batters and bowlers. Hasaranga comes in for Willey,” RCB captain Faf Du Plessis said after the toss.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj, Vijaykumar Vyshak.
Subs: Suyash Prabhudessai, David Willey, Akash Deep, Karn Sharma, Anuj Rawat.
Delhi Capitals' (Playing XI): 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Mitchell Marsh, 3 Yash Dhull, 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Axar Patel, 6 Lalit Yadav, 7 Aman Khan, 8 Abishek Porel (wk), 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Mustafizur Rahman.
Subs: Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar, Pravin Dubey, Sarfaraz Khan, Chetan Sakariya.
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