Virat Kohli struck an unbeaten 105 to propel Royal Challengers Bengaluru to the top of the IPL table on Wednesday night. Bengaluru chased down a target of 193 to beat Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur.
Kohli returned to form following two consecutive ducks. He reached his ninth IPL century in 60 balls, hitting 11 fours and three sixes. This innings also made him the fastest player to reach 14,000 T20 runs (409 innings), surpassing the previous record of 423 innings held by Chris Gayle.
Kolkata posted 192-4 after batting first. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 21, top-scored with 71 from 46 deliveries. Rinku Singh added a late flourish with an unbeaten 49 from 29 balls, while Cameron Green contributed 32. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, and Rasikh Salam each took one wicket for the defending champions.
Bengaluru’s chase began with the early loss of Jacob Bethell for 15. Kohli then shared a 92-run second-wicket partnership with Devdutt Padikkal. While Padikkal struggled for timing during his 39, Kohli maintained the scoring rate. Bengaluru lost Rajat Patidar and Tim David in quick succession, but Jitesh Sharma hit the winning runs with five balls to spare.
The victory moves Bengaluru to 16 points from 12 matches. They lead Gujarat Titans at the top of the 10-team standings on net run-rate. Kohli also equalled Rohit Sharma’s record of 21 Player of the Match awards in the IPL.
Kohli now has 10 T20 centuries in total. This places him level with David Warner and behind only Chris Gayle (22) and Babar Azam (13) on the all-time list. This century was his second against a Kolkata franchise and his first of the current 2026 campaign.
