Jaipur, Apr 6: Talismanic batter Virat Kohli brought out his vintage self to slam his eighth Indian Premier League (IPL) century and ninth overall in T20 cricket to lift Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a competitive 183/3 in 20 overs against Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Saturday evening.

Kohli was pristine in hitting 12 fours and four sixes to make an unbeaten 113 off 72 balls, also his third century in his last seven IPL innings and first of the ongoing season, to level his highest score in the competition. He went hard in scoring against pace, making 67 off 39 balls while accumulating 46 off 33 balls against spin.

Kohli hit almost 62% runs of RCB’s total, while the rest of the batters made 59 runs from 48 balls, to give his team a real chance in defending the total on a pitch which he described as ball holding up a bit. Interestingly, Kohli’s 67-ball ton is the joint-slowest in IPL, levelling with a hundred made by Manish Pandey in same number of balls against DC in 2009.

Pushed into batting first, Kohli and Faf du Plessis hit four boundaries to help RCB amass 29/0 in three overs. Kohli hit the first six of the game by handsomely pulling Nandre Burger before du Plessis thumped a four over his head. The duo brought up the fifty of the opening stand in the sixth over to finish the powerplay at 53/0.

After Kohli became the first batter to breach the 7,500-run mark in IPL’s history, du Plessis launched a brace sixes on short balls from Trent Boult to take 16 runs off the ninth over. Kohli whipped off Yuzvendra Chahal for a six in the 10th over, followed by reaching his fifty when he hammered Riyan Parag for a six down the ground.

The century stand between Kohli and du Plessis was achieved in 11.2 overs, before the former got a life at 67 when Burger dropped a chance at point off Chahal. A few balls later, Boult dropped a regulation catch of du Plessis at cover to give the batter a second life on 42 off Chahal. But du Plessis couldn’t capitalise on the reprieve as he holed out to long-on for 44 off 33 balls off the leg-spinner, followed by Burger rattling Glenn Maxwell’s stumps and Chahal taking out debutant Saurabh Chauhan.

Kohli signalled taking an acceleration route by smacking Avesh for three fours, before slog-sweeping Chahal for six and reaching his century in 67 balls with a single to long-on off a low full toss from Burger. Kohli took three fours off Avesh in the final over and walked off with a standing ovation from his RCB teammates, as the visitors made 54 runs off the last five overs.

Brief scores:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru 183/3 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 113 not out, Faf du Plessis 44; Yuzvendra Chahal 2-34, Nandre Burger 1-33) against Rajasthan Royals (IANS)

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