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Virat Kohli and Mohammad Kaif (IPL Photo)
NEW DELHI: Two years aft retiring from planetary T20 cricket, Virat Kohli continues to beryllium he’s acold from “finished” successful the shortest format of the game. In the IPL 2026 opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad connected Saturday, helium smashed an unbeaten 69 disconnected 38 balls for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, starring his squad to a ascendant win.
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His caller signifier has been outstanding, with consistently precocious scores successful white-ball cricket, leaving critics with small to say.
Kaif’s station sparks debate
After the match, erstwhile cricketer Mohammad Kaif shared a station defending Kohli and reminding fans of his beardown performances. Expressing his presumption connected X, helium wrote, "Imagine, aft 2 ducks successful Australia, they said Virat Kohli was over. His past 10 scores successful white-ball cricket are: 74, 135, 102, 65, 131, 77, 93, 23, 124, and 69 n.o successful this match."
While the connection praised Kohli, galore fans questioned its timing. They felt determination was nary request to support him present since helium has been performing consistently. Some besides pointed retired that earlier disapproval was mostly astir his struggles successful Test cricket, not limited-overs formats.
Kohli keeps scripting records
Kohli besides reached large milestones during the game. He became the archetypal subordinate successful IPL past to people 4000 runs successful chases and moved past Shoaib Malik successful T20 tally charts. He scored his 64th IPL 50 and finished the lucifer successful style.Alongside him, Devdutt Padikkal played a speedy sound arsenic RCB chased down 203 successful conscionable 15.4 overs, boosting their nett tally complaint aboriginal successful the tournament.
