Not a smasher of the cricket ball, is Virat Kohli. He prefers elegance and grace and flawless technique. Even in a basher’s game like T20 cricket, he’s managed to never get himself in an ugly position on the pitch. However, people often criticized him and said that the T20 game was probably not his strongest suit. However, he was all set to change this opinion in IPL 2016!
When people though he couldn’t play test cricket, he ensured he changed that opinion, scoring 7 double hundreds for the country. Similarly, he was about to do something radical in 2016 when the Indian Premier League came around. He batted through cramps, he batted with stitches on his finger, he batted in losing causes. All he did was keep batting and batting and batting in IPL 2016!
One particular game that led to the change in people’s thoughts of King Kohli as a T20 batsman was on 24th April 2016 as Royal Challengers Bangalore played the now disbanded Gujarat Lions. It was Match 19 of the season and Kohli put RCB in to bat after winning the toss. What followed was an absolute masterclass from the captain himself, carrying his bat through the innings and ending with 100(63)* as RCB put up 180/2 in their quota of 20 overs.
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Kohli had a hunger that season which we’ve never seen in anyone on a cricket field before. This innings was special because he scored 80 in just the previous game and he seemed annoyed with himself because he may have consumed too many deliveries in that innings. Here however, he punish every bowler to bring up his first IPL century and overall, his first century in the T20 format itself.
This was the 37th entry in the list of all-time IPL centuries overall, but it was Kohli’s first entry in that list. Little did we know that the treat would go on all season, with 4 centuries to his name in IPL 2016 and ending with a tally of 973 runs – probably a record that will never be touched. Previously, he had been run out on 99 once, so this century would’ve got the monkey off his back.
In this game, Kohli was batting on 85* when the final over kicked off and not many would’ve expected him to get to a ton. However, he hit a maximum early in the over from Dwayne Bravo and he got strike with 2 balls to go and him batting on 92*. You can always expect magic from Kohli as he whipped 2 boundaries in the final couple of balls, and brought up his century with a loud and customary roar to follow!
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It was probably the last time RCB did well in an IPL season, finishing second on the points table. This particular game however, didn’t go in their favour as Dinesh Karthik’s unbeaten fifty helped Gujarat Lions over the line in the final over. Needless to say though, Kohli was awarded the Man of the Match for his 11 boundaries and single six that he scored during this innings.
“Should have kept it away from his reach. Personal performances are good, but not having a win is difficult,” said Kohli in the post-match presentation and anyone who knows Kohli will know that such performances don’t bother him one bit if they don’t come in a winning cause. However, it was indeed a good night for him and more followed in that special season. Stay tuned to ReadScoops.com for similar throwbacks…
