By Prakash Nair 
Raipur, May 14: Two ducks. Back to back. The most talked-about batter in Indian cricket standing at the crease with nothing to show for his last two innings, a restless crowd watching his every move, and a target of 193 sitting on the board.
What happened next was Virat Kohli being exactly who he has always been.
105 not out. 60 balls. 11 fours. Three sixes. Six-wicket win. RCB through to the playoffs. And a KKR bowling attack that came in with a plan and left with nothing to show for it.
Some nights in cricket just belong to one person. Wednesday night in Raipur belonged entirely to him.
KKR Bat First and Give Themselves Something to Bowl At
The evening had not started badly for Kolkata at all. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood found movement early under the Raipur lights, and Finn Allen gave a brief powerplay blast of 18 before Bhuvneshwar got him. Ajinkya Rahane followed shortly after for 19. Two big wickets inside the powerplay. RCB were on top and it felt like KKR might fold.
They didn’t, because Angkrish Raghuvanshi decided this was his night. The young wicketkeeper-batter batted with a calm head that belied both his age and the situation. His steady 71 anchored KKR to 192 for 4. Not a barnstorming total. Not the kind of score you’d put up at Wankhede. But on this Raipur surface, on this pitch that grips and keeps low as the innings progresses, 192 felt like a real number. The KKR dressing room looked at it and believed they could defend it.
Here’s the thing though. That belief was reasonable against almost any other batting lineup. Tonight, the man walking out to open was not in a reasonable frame of mind. He was in a different kind of frame of mind entirely.
Virat Kohli Celebrates His First Run Like a Milestone
You cannot fully understand how significant the first single was without knowing what came before it.
Virat Kohli hadn’t scored a fifty in his last four IPL matches. He walked into this game off two consecutive ducks. The last time he had managed back-to-back zeros in the IPL was 2022. People were writing articles about his footwork. Former players were going on TV to discuss his dismissal patterns. The kind of noise that would get inside most people’s heads.
When he pushed the ball for his first single, he celebrated it. Just a single. The crowd in Raipur erupted like he had pulled a six over fine leg. But that moment told you something. He was here. He was present. The weight of the last two games had not broken anything. It had just been stored somewhere and converted into focus.
By the end of the powerplay he was batting on 30 off 14 balls four fours and a hooked six off Tyagi. The footwork people had been criticising all week was suddenly sharp and assured. The drives were timing perfectly. And he just kept going, over after over, never giving KKR a moment to breathe.
The Partnership That Ended KKR’s Evening
Jacob Bethell fell early, and in came Devdutt Padikkal as the impact substitute. What followed was the passage of play that basically finished the contest as a meaningful competition.
Kohli and Padikkal put on 92 runs for the second wicket off 59 balls. Padikkal made 39, playing the perfect supporting role punishing anything short, rotating strike, keeping the scoreboard moving while Kohli did Kohli things at the other end.
KKR dropped Virat Kohli during this partnership. Rovman Powell put down the chance off Kartik Tyagi’s bowling. On any other night, in any other game, that might be a footnote. Tonight it was the turning point and Rahane knew it. “Defending a total, that catch of Kohli you want to hang on. That, I felt, was the difference,” he said after the game. No anger in his voice. No pointing fingers. Just a captain being honest about where it slipped away.
Kohli and Padikkal also now have 10 fifty-plus partnerships in successful IPL chases together the most by any pair in the tournament’s history. There is something almost unfair about how well those two read each other at the crease.
105 Not Out and a Night Full of Records
Virat Kohli reached his fifty off 32 balls and then accelerated. By the time it was done, he had made 105 not out off 60 balls. When the hundred came up in the penultimate over, he raised his bat quietly, no big roar, no theatrics, just a simple acknowledgement of the crowd’s applause. The kind of celebration that says more than any fist-pump ever could.
Along the way, history was being made in several directions at once.
Kohli became the first Indian batter to complete 14,000 runs in T20 cricket, reaching the milestone with a boundary off Sunil Narine in the 16th over.
He got there in 409 innings, making him the fastest batter ever to 14,000 T20 runs, going past Chris Gayle’s previous record of 423 innings. He is only the sixth batter in the world to reach the landmark.
This was also his ninth IPL century, two more than Jos Buttler who is next on the list with seven. And with 279 IPL appearances, he is now the most capped player in the league’s history, surpassing both MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma who have played 278 games apiece.
And then the one that really stopped people in their tracks. Virat Kohli is now the first batter in IPL history to score a century after back-to-back ducks. In 19 seasons. Across hundreds of players. Nobody had ever done it before. He did it in Raipur, on a Wednesday night, three days after this same city had already given us one of the great finishes of this season.
Raipur is getting a lot done this IPL.
What Rahane Said at the Presentation
Ajinkya Rahane was measured and dignified in defeat. There was no deflection, no excuses, just a captain assessing what went wrong with clear eyes.
“We thought 190 was a competitive total. The batters who batted thought it was a competitive total. Good effort by the batters. Our fielding was really good in the last few games. But while chasing a total, Virat is a dangerous player. He is a dangerous player anyway. Padikkal has also been batting well. Guys are working hard, but you can drop catches. That is okay.”
“That is okay.” That phrase did a lot of work. KKR dropped Virat Kohli when he was still in his thirties. He went on to make 105. In cricket, dropped catches do not always cost you. On Wednesday night, it cost them everything.
Rahane also praised Kartik Tyagi separately, noting his clear mindset and commitment with the ball as an encouraging sign for KKR going forward. Tyagi has been one of the few bright spots of a season that has lurched from catastrophic start to promising middle to another stumble tonight.
What Virat Kohli Said After
This is where it gets interesting. Because Kohli did not celebrate the records. He barely acknowledged them. What he talked about was the pressure, and what pressure does to him.
“The celebration was not a big one because we know the importance of the points. It is a conscious effort to contribute more to the team. The fact I did not score runs, it eats me up because I have been playing well. It bothers you because that has been the goal to be the best version. Century or no century, the more important thing is to finish the game.”
And then this: “There is a reason people say pressure is a privilege. It keeps you humble. Good pressure always helps you improve your game.”
Two ducks had been eating him alive all week. He said so himself. The public narrative around his form had gotten loud and slightly hysterical in the way it tends to when Kohli has a bad patch. And his answer to all of it was 105 not out, a six-wicket win, a handful of all-time records, and a quiet bat raise at the end.
He didn’t roar. He didn’t need to.
Where Things Stand
RCB are now top of the table with 16 points from 12 games. Two league matches remain. Their next game is against Punjab Kings in Dharamsala. Patidar also confirmed that Phil Salt, absent for six games with a finger injury, is expected to return soon.
For KKR, the result leaves their playoff hopes hanging by a thread. They will need to win their remaining games and hope several other results go their way. Four wins in a row had made the revival story feel real. Tonight, one man reminded everyone why you never, ever count on a batting lineup to underperform when Virat Kohli is in it.
Rahane said it best, even if he meant it as a warning rather than a tribute.
We all know while chasing, Virat is a dangerous player.
Yes. The entire cricketing world knows. It just takes some people a dropped catch and 105 runs to remember it.
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- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
