The crowd at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur went crazy on Wednesday night after Virat Kohli nudged a single with a drive to long-off in the 19th over. The legendary batsman reached his 9th IPL century—the most by any player in the competition’s history in just 58 balls. Many anticipated an emotional and fiery celebration to mark his comeback after he recorded straight ducks in his last two IPL 2026 outings. However, that was not the case.
The chasemaster opted for a composed gesture. He even seemed hesitant to celebrate the historic knock against the Kolkata Knight Riders at one point. When the audience and his Royal Challengers Bengaluru teammates sprang up to cheer him on, Kohli simply raised his bat gently and kept his helmet on. He swiftly returned his attention to the task at hand, which was to help RCB cross the finish line and earn two points in order to take a significant step toward earning a playoff berth. And he did it alongside Jitesh Sharma as the reigning champions successfully chased 193 while taking six wickets.
Why Virat Kohli Didn’t Celebrate His Century?
“Well, the celebration wasn’t a big one because we know the importance of the points right now. For me, it’s a conscious effort to try and contribute to the team’s scores. And I know if I bat for long enough in the game, our chances of winning become higher,” Kohli said after winning the POTM award.
Kohli acknowledged that he was feeling bothered after not being able to score in his last two games.
“The fact that I didn’t get many runs in the last two games was, it eats me up in a way that I know I can play well and I’m hitting the ball well. But then when you don’t carry on and you haven’t created the impact for the team, it bothers you because that’s basically been the goal all these years, trying to improve so that you can be the best version for your team when you play out there and make an impact,” he said.
“So, century or no century, I think the more important thing is finishing the game, making sure that I was out there till the end to get those two points, which again, puts us at the top of the table,” he added.
