In a heartwarming gesture, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opener Virat Kohli touched his childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma’s feet before taking the field at Arun Jaitley Stadium against Delhi Capitals (DC) on May 6. Kohli was practising when he saw Rajkumar Sharma. After touching his feet, he talked to Sharma for a while before walking back to the dugout. The video has been making rounds on the internet as fans have termed him as a ‘man of culture’.
Before the match, Rajkumar also ring the bell to kickstart the game. RCB skipper Faf du Plessis won the toss and opted to bat first.
Kohli and Du Plessis shared an 82-run opening partnership from 63 balls. Kohli could not score freely. He scored 55 runs from 46 deliveries including five fours at a strike rate of 119.57. The 34-year-old lost his wicket to Mukesh Kumar in the 16th over.
During the innings, he also became the first batter in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 to score 7,000 runs. He achieved the feat in his 225th inning.
“7000 runs is just another milestones during the journey of what I'm trying to do for my team. It's a nice number when you try to do something for your team,” he said after RCB posted 181/4 with the help of Mahipal Lomror’s quickfire half-century.
“It's a special moment, Anushka is here, my family is here, my coach is here. I was honoured with getting a pavilion named after me. I started my journey here and started playing for Delhi here. I never imagined all these things would come there and there's gratitude for all this,” a nostalgic Kohli said.
Kohli lauded Lomror for maximizing the slog overs, something RCB have not been able to do if the top three fail to stay till the end.
“Lomror was unbelievable and me and Faf thought that 160 would be a good score. Mahipal came and changed the game, shifted the momentum towards us. My job was to bat deep and get those late runs, but DK and Mahi did a tremendous job as well. It gives the senior guys like me and Faf a lot of confidence at this stage of the tournament. It's a great sign for the team,” he concluded.
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