Throughout the IPL, Virat Kohli’s rhythm and strike rate after the powerplay constantly came into question. Against the Sunrisers though, he decided to shelve his approach of going steady and went after the bowling, without stopping after the powerplay. He stuck to his strengths of running hard, and with Faf Du Plessis at the other end, he was able to swiftly convert ones into twos while going hard without taking many risks.

He shifted gears with ease and was very smooth with how he overtook his partner on the scoreboard. The game against SRH was a rather crucial one with net-run-rate in discussion. With RCB needing to win by a fair margin, both Kohli and Faf took the bowlers on, and his approach against Bhuvneshwar Kumar, in particular, was a strong statement.

Throughout the season, Hyderabad did not have much to feel pleased about. Bhuvneshwar Kumar though has been pretty solid up front, getting the new ball to talk as he settled into a nice flow through the season. Virat Kohli, knowing that Bhuvneshwar Kumar could be tough to get away if he gets his line and length right decided to go after Kumar from the word go. He went all out in the first over and put pressure on Hyderabad straight away.

He faced a left-arm spinner in Abhishek Sharma next. Spin has been an issue for Virat Kohli in the past few seasons, but a deeper reading into his stats indicate that he has done a decent job against spin, when he went after them with some intent, abandoning his nudges for quick runs. With Kohli in full flow from the first over he took on Sharma as well, and was quickly able to put enough pressure to patiently switch to his style of running hard.

Virat Kohli, a man who made his career out of run-chases, doing the unthinkable against some of the best bowling attacks was at it again. He had Faf Du Plessis for the support this time, and when the wrist spinners came on after the powerplay he knew exactly what he needed to do. With the target in front of him, Kohli and Faf put up a master class on how to switch gears in a run chase.

On his way to a milestone sixth century, Virat Kohli put on display the style of play that made him the player he is. He picked the bowler to play out, going a little cautiously against Mayank Dogar, and put pressure on the others. Within no time, he was showing his flexibility as he allowed his arm power to go on display with a massive 103 meter six, which is not normally associated with Virat Kohli’s style of play.

There was calmness to his batting and with Faf at the other end, he enjoyed his stay in the middle as the pair looked in complete control. With another batter who runs hard between the wickets, Virat Kohli was visibly enjoying his time out in the middle as RCB found another pair to match the Virat-AB De Villier partnership that bought them a lot of wins over the years.

In the end, the pair went on to make 172 together. They dominated the batting charts this season with both putting up some really nice partnerships together. Against Hyderabad too, for a good part of the innings, both batters were batting at an identical pace. For a while it actually looked like Faf could finish with more until Bhuvneshwar Kumar bore the brunt of Virat Kohli’s class, taking Virat Kohli ahead of Faf. It was all carnage from there with Virat Kohli going on to get closer to another record as he now stands equal with Chris Gayle on six centuries in the IPL.