Virat Kohli’s ninth century in the IPL didn’t come with the kind of celebration people associate with record milestones. By the time Royal Challengers Bengaluru reached the landmark, the former captain seemed to have already settled the excitement inside his own head. After all, his Wednesday breakthrough against Kolkata Knight Riders in Raipur started with a moment of relief: it was his first run in three matches, following back-to-back ducks in the previous two outings.
The first single he registered set the tone, and Kohli made it feel like a personal victory by clenching his fists. The next surge brought the next wave of celebration. When he moved to 98, he did it with a six off Kartik Tyagi in the 18th over, triggering a brief, unmistakable jig from the RCB batter. One over later, he reached his ninth IPL ton—an innings that summed up a classic Kohli comeback.
That century stretched Kohli’s own IPL record for the most hundreds. He now has nine scores of 100-plus in the league, and the chase doesn’t end there: he requires three more centuries to level Babar Azam at the top of the T20 standings for most hundred scores overall. In the wider T20 record books, Chris Gayle leads on 22, Babar Azam has 13, and David Warner and Virat Kohli sit on 10 each. The list then continues with Rilee Rossouw and Sahibzada Farhan on nine, and Quinton de Kock and Abhishek Sharma also on nine. In terms of IPL hundreds specifically, Kohli’s nine place him above Jos Buttler on seven, with Chris Gayle and KL Rahul on six apiece, and Sanju Samson on five.
Kohli also moved further up the speed charts for T20 batting milestones. He became the fastest player to reach 14,000 T20 runs, doing it in 409 innings. The comparison list reads: 423 for Chris Gayle, 431 for David Warner, 468 for Jos Buttler, 505 for Alex Hales, and 633 for Kieron Pollard.
The story of the match itself was built around that return from the lean spell. Kohli responded to the two previous games where he failed to score twice with a composed, unbeaten century as RCB swept past KKR by six wickets in their IPL meeting in Raipur on Wednesday. Chasing 193 for victory, the RCB captain struck an undefeated 105 from 60 deliveries, featuring 11 fours and three sixes. Just as importantly, he stitched the chase together with a decisive 92-run partnership for the second wicket alongside Devdutt Padikkal, who made 37 off 27 balls. With that platform in place, RCB got home comfortably in 19.1 overs, completing the win in a chase that never really wavered.
KKR had laid their own groundwork earlier in the day, driven by a strong innings from wicketkeeper-batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi. He held the innings together with 71 as KKR finished on 192/4 — a total that looked competitive enough to keep RCB under pressure. Raghuvanshi’s 46-ball knock came with seven boundaries and three sixes. He also anchored key periods of the innings, sharing a 68-run stand for the third wicket with Cameron Green, who contributed 32 off 24 balls, before adding another crucial 76-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Rinku Singh. Singh ended unbeaten on 49 off 29 balls, helping KKR post a total that set the chase for Kohli and RCB.
