NEW DELHI: Virat Kohli smashed an unprecedented fourth century of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season — despite nursing a finger injury — to become the tournament’s highest ever run-scorer.
Kohli, who batted with nine stitches after splitting the webbing in his left hand in the previous game, bludgeoned 113 runs off 50 balls to reach 4,002 runs in the Twenty20 competition.
Kohli surpassed Indian batsman Suresh Raina’s record of 3,985 runs as he led the Royal Challengers Bangalore to another crushing win against Kings XI Punjab on Wednesday.
The India Test captain put together a 147-run opening partnership with powerful Jamaican Chris Gayle (73).
Bangalore piled up 211 for three in the game, which was cut to 15 overs a side because of rain.
“When all that was happening out there, I thought surely I can’t get a hundred in 15 overs. I wasn’t believing that it was happening,” said Kohli.
The in-form 27-year-old this week also became the highest run-getter in a single season, and he now stands at 865 runs in 13 games.
Kohli is the first batsman to hit four tons in a single T20 season, which, along with five half-centuries, has taken his average to 86.50 in this year’s competition.
Kohli and teammate AB de Villiers also shared a record 229-run second-wicket stand last week, the highest partnership in the history of T20 cricket.
Meanwhile, hailing Kohli as a “legend”, Mumbai Indians off-spinner Harbhajan Singh yesterday said his side has plans to tackle the Delhi boy’s onslaught in case the two sides face off in the play-offs.
“Virat is a legend in himself. He has been in some different sort of form, it appears he is batting in a different league altogether,” Harbhajan said on the sidelines of the launch of mobile sporting application ‘Ballr’ here.
Asked if he has any plans to tackle Virat’s onslaught, the 35-year-old said, “We have planned really well against him. We have got him out in both the league games and also won both the games against RCB.”
Heaping praises on the 27-year-old’s consistency, Harbhajan said there is no doubt he will take Indian cricket to a whole new level in the next 10 years.
“I have been working closely with him in the last 3-4 months. He is very hard working and always wants to be the best. He has already set a benchmark and is someone who will take Indian cricket to a different level,” he said.
Responding to a query on the teams in race to the IPL play-offs, the senior bowler predicted Mumbai Indians, RCB, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad as the front-runners.
