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Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opening batter Virat Kohli smashed his sixth IPL century on Thursday, May 18, during their match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
SRH rode on the sheer brilliance of Heinrich Klaasen's 104 off 51 balls to post 186/5 on the scoreboard after being asked to bat first by RCB captain Faf du Plessis.
Virat Kohli was in attacking mode right from the word go. He hit Bhuvneshwar Kumar for successive boundaries to kick off the chase. Kohli and du Plessis raced with each other as they went from strength to strength in a bid to shift the pressure on SRH bowlers.
The RCB openers notched their individual fifties in the 12th over and at the same time crossed the 100-run mark. Kohli and du Plessis were batting in their 60s before the former switched gears and took the charge against Bhuvneshwar.
Kohli hit four boundaries in the 15th over off the senior SRH pacer and later whacked T Natarajan for a six over mid-wicket to move into the 90s.
Virat Kohli flicked it once again over mid-wicket for a six, and this time it came against Bhuvneshwar, to reach his sixth IPL century. It took a gap of 1490 days for Kohli between his two IPL hundreds.
The former RCB skipper last reached the three-figure mark against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 19, 2019, at Eden Gardens.
A few records Virat Kohli and RCB achieved in their 8-wicket win vs SRH
Virat Kohli completed his sixth IPL century and leveled the tally of his former RCB teammates Chris Gayle (6). However, Kohli has scored the most IPL centuries while representing a single team.
It was the very first time in the history of the IPL that two hundreds were notched in either side of the innings - Klaasen (104) and Kohli (100).
There were two previous instances of two players from the same team recording centuries in the same innings - Kohli (109) and AB de Villiers (129*) versus Gujarat Lions in 2016 and David Warner (100) and Jonny Bairstow (114) in 2019.
This was Kohli's third 50+ score on May 18 in IPL and second century. He made 113 against Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in 2016 and 53* against Chennai Super Kings in 2013.
Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis stitched 172 runs for the opening wicket, which is the highest for any pair against SRH in Hyderabad.
