How do you stop Virat Kohli? How do you stop RCB? In another ridiculous, fantabulous (insert your favourite adjective here) display of T20 batting, Kohli and Chris Gayle, not AB De Villiers this time, made you feel sorry for the bowler again, as six after six after six after six rained down at the Chinnaswamy, the moment the actual rain -- you know the wet kind that drops down from the sky and not the white ball that kept sailing into the stands -- quelled long enough to get a game of ridiculous hitting.
The IPL 2016 has seen it all this season, but what has stood out, again, is the RCB batting. After Kohli and De Villiers put on a world record 229-run partnership in the last match played in Bengaluru, on Monday, Kohli and Gayle went into that wonderful town called "six-hitting", where the only thing that happens is the poor old bowlers getting tonked and the white ball crossing the ropes with ridiculous ease.
As much as the sheer dominance of the batsmen on a wicket that gives absolutely nothing for the bowlers is not good for cricket, it is impossible not to admire this RCB batting lineup, particularly Virat 'Cheeku' Kohli, who keeps breaking IPL records with every passing game.
Having gone into his own as the leading runscorer in an IPL season with a match-winning innings in his last game, Kohli showed why he is the best batsman in the world right now, with another (add favourite adjective here again) show of the highest quality.
Some of the shots that Kohli plays through the offside is beyond admiration; the ease with which he finds the gaps and places the ball exactly where he wants it, plain and simple of the "get up on your feet and clap" kind. With Gayle joining in on the fun, all Kings XI could do was pray and hope that 15-over torture would end.
Kohli's celebration, after completing his fourth hundred in the IPL this season – goes without saying it is a record – off 47 balls, said it all: the RCB skipper looked towards his dugout, and pointed to his injured left hand, which, by the looks of it, did not bother him at all. Imagine if Kohli was not injured at all; now that would have been beyond unbelievable.
Kohli, after smashing another six and a four after that century, would finally fall, mishitting a shot to long-off, but the send-off showed just how brilliant his innings was, with even the Kings XI players walking up to the right-hander to congratulate him on a knock, that was, frankly, near beyond belief, something even De Villiers would have looked at and said "woah, that was unbelievable man, I don't know if even I could have done that."
At the end of it all, in those 90 deliveries of the first innings, RCB scored 211/3 (no, really, they did), with Kohli, who went on to become the highest run scorer in IPL history, while becoming the first ever player to get past 400 runs, with this knock, notching 113 of those runs off just 50 balls, with 12 fours and eight sixes. Gayle added 73 from 32 balls, studded with a mere four fours and all of eight sixes, for good measure, and while De Villiers fell for a duck, RCB batted Kings XI out of the game.
As expected, Kings XI could not keep up in the chase, and every time they tried to do a Kohli, Gayle, or De Villiers, they lost a wicket, eventually finishing on 120/9 in 14 overs, as the rain came down an over early to end KXIP's misery.
Watch the highlights of the match HERE and HERE
Watch highlights of Kohli's brilliant century HERE
