NEW DELHI:
Virat Kohli was on fire for Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday (May 6) during Match No. 50 of the IPL 2023, which was played at the Arun Jaitely Stadium in Delhi. The Delhi lad, who has represented RCB in the IPL since the start of the league way back in 2008, top-scored for his side by making 55 runs against local team Delhi Capitals. But his effort went in vain, as he couldn’t help the three-time losing finalists secure the full two points.
Thanks to Phil Salt’s 45-ball 87, the hosts chased down the target of 182 runs for the loss of three wickets in just 16.2 overs. With the help of the win over RCB, Delhi kept itself alive in the race to qualify for the IPL 2023 playoffs, and with a total of eight points from 10 matches played so far, they are now in ninth place in the IPL 2023 points table.
But even though his team wasn’t able to win Saturday’s match, it was a memorable outing for Virat, and he created multiple batting records. The right-handed batter became the first cricketer in the history of the competition to score 7,000 or more runs, and in addition to that, he also became the first batter to score 1000 runs in the IPL against the Delhi Capitals.
He has scored a total of 7,043 runs in 233 IPL matches played till date, and out of those 7,043 runs, 1030 have come against Delhi Capitals, which was formerly known as Delhi Daredevils.
Against Delhi, Virat faced a total of 46 deliveries and, with the help of five fours, scored 55 runs. By scoring a fifty against the Delhi Capitals, Virat created history by becoming the first Indian batter to complete a half-century of fifties in the IPL. Before Virat, only David Warner had scored more than fifty 50s in the IPL, and now Virat is part of that unique list.
In his overall IPL career, apart from scoring 50 half-centuries, Virat has also hammered five centuries, which is also the most by any Indian batter.
