Virat Kohli was the lone ranger as his second successive century powered Royal Challengers Bangalore to a difficult 197 for 5 of their must-win remaining IPL league recreation in opposition to Gujarat Titans right here on Sunday. With the rain gods threatening to spoil RCB’s play-off plans through the day, the match that began half an hour late noticed Kohli (101 not out off 61 balls) convey again his 2016 avatar. He held all of the aces throughout his knock that had 13 fours and a six. His innings was priceless within the context that not one of the different RCB batters might even attain 30 and identical to the nice previous days, ‘King Kohli’ set the narrative by enjoying with line, size and minds of the bowlers.

This is his seventh IPL hundred and he has now surpassed Chris Gayle because the batter with highest variety of event tons.

Considering that the Chinnaswamy Stadium is thought for batting belters, the ultimate complete, although aggressive sufficient, might nonetheless be about 10 runs beneath par.

Kohli and skipper Faf Du Plessis (28) bought off to a rollicking begin, with a flurry of boundaries in opposition to Mohammed Shami (1/39 in 4 overs) and the already distraught Yash Dayal within the powerplay.

They have been dispatched for as many as 9 boundaries which prompted Hardik Pandya to rapidly press his foremost weapon, Rashid Khan (1/24 in 4 overs), into motion to stem the circulation of runs.

After conceding 62 runs in six powerplay overs, Rashid and his ‘left-arm mirror picture’ Noor Ahmed (2/39 in 4 overs) put the brakes on the scoring.

Noor dismissed du Plessis whereas he tried to hit him inside in a freakish method. The edge hit Wriddhiman Saha’s pads and lobbed up for Rahul Tewatia to finish a straightforward catch.

Glenn Maxwell began off nicely however Rashid bowled one which was quick and full and simply broke again sufficient to breach the defence of the batter as RCB all of a sudden discovered themselves in a rut.

It turned worse when Noor dragged Mahipal Lomror with one which turned the opposite means and Saha accomplished a leg-side stumping with the finesse that’s related to him for years now.

Michael Bracewell (26), nevertheless, took some stress off Kohli on the different finish with Mohit Sharma’s slower balls not working nicely on this event.

In his first three overs, he was hit for seven fours and it was Shami who bought Bracewell earlier than he might inflict extra injury and Dayal had one thing lastly going for him when Dinesh Karthik’s woeful season bought worse.

But Kohli continued to struggle.