The crowd in Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium witnessed Virat Kohli making a comeback with a bang. The former Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper smashed his maiden fifty in the latest edition of the Indian Premier League against Gujrat Titans in the first match of Saturday’s doubleheader.
Paring with RCB’s new skipper Faf Du Plessis, King Kohli stepped into the ground to open the innings. Followed by a couple of dots, Kohli started the show in style. He opened the account with two consecutive boundaries against Mohammed Shami in the very first over.
However, Du Plessis failed to stick to the crease for a long time. Pradeep Sangwan got him for a duck in the second over. After Du Plessis’ dismissal, Kohli took a stronghold of the game and steered the innings with sheer patience.
Accompanied by Rajat Patidar, Kohli used the poor deliveries to bring boundaries composedly in a regular interval. It took 45 deliveries for him to score the first half-century and the first big score of the season. His innings was laced with six boundaries and one maximum.
With the fifty, Kohli joined Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the list of most fifty-plus scores by an Indian batter in the history of the Indian Premier League. Both Kohli and Dhawan have 48 such scores to their names.
The fans in the stands got delighted after watching the return of Kohli. His wife, actor Anushka Sharma was also seen celebrating each of the runs. After Kohli reached the 50-run mark, Sharma was seen celebrating the success and cheering from the stand.
Many prominent cricketers along with fans have marked the half-century by penning down congratulatory messages for Kohli on Twitter.
Here are some of the reactions:
After registering a string of low scores, Virat Kohli has finally bounced back against the table toppers. His previous five innings consist of three single-digit scores and two consecutive golden ducks.
On Saturday, the magnificent innings came to an end after Shami got him bowled while Kohli attempted a cover drive. Kohli left the crease after scoring a 53-ball 58.
RCB posted 170 runs on board. Apart from Kohli, Rajat Patidar also fetched a brilliant half century scoring 52 runs in 32 deliveries in this fixture.
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