Virat Kohli moved up from eighth place to second in the IPL 2025 Orange Cap rankings after delivering an outstanding performance against the Rajasthan Royals at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru opener scored 70 runs from 42 balls on a surface that provided significant bounce to the fast bowlers. Kohli's half-century, which marked his fifth of the season, brought his overall total to 392 runs in nine matches. He is currently trailing only Gujarat Titans' young player Sai Sudharan, who has accumulated 417 runs in eight matches and firmly holds the Orange Cap.

Kohli surpassed KL Rahul, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Jos Buttler, Suryakumar Yadav, and Nicholas Pooran with his 70-run innings against RR on Thursday.

Kohli's remarkable innings prompted former India batter Suresh Raina to express a desire for him to reconsider his retirement from T20Is. Kohli had declared his retirement from the shorter format after receiving the Player of the Match award in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa, which concluded India's 13-year-long wait for an ICC title.

"Virat Kohli took an early retirement from T20Is. He could’ve easily played till 2026," Raina remarked on Star Sports.

In doing so, Kohli also became the first player ever in the IPL to reach over 3500 runs at a single venue (the Chinnaswamy).

Kohli and Padikkal lead RCB to a score of 205/5 against RR

Batting first after losing their fourth toss at home this season, RCB made a solid beginning following an eventful first over by Jofra Archer, who gave away 11 runs, including a 149. 8km bumper that soared over the keeper for a four.

There was excitement in the second over as well, as a diving Riyan Parag, leading RR during the absence of injured Sanju Samson, dropped Phil Salt (26 off 23 balls) at mid-off after getting both hands on the ball from the bowling of Fazalhaq Farooqi.

After obtaining a boundary off a thick inside edge, Kohli pulled Archer for a four into the deep square leg area.

With RR searching for their breakthrough, medium pacer Tushar Deshpande was brought into the attack, and Salt greeted him with two boundaries on either side of the wicket.

Back on strike, Kohli flicked a Deshpande delivery that was begging to be punished for a boundary as RCB surpassed 50 in the fifth over. With another stunning hit to the fence off Sandeep Sharma, Kohli assisted RCB in completing the power play with 59 runs on the scoreboard.

Leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga provided RR with their initial breakthrough when he had Salt caught at deep mid-wicket after the batter got a leading edge while attempting to hoick the ball on the on-side.

Kohli reached his half-century in 32 balls, marking his fifth of the season and first at home, after hitting back-to-back fours off Sandeep.

Meanwhile, Padikkal was in great form as he continuously scored boundaries at will and benefited from a dropped catch by Deshpande in the deep off Hasaranga.

Kohli and Padikkal then began hitting sixes against Parag and Deshpande, with the latter bowler being hit for three maximums in the 15th over, which yielded RCB 22 runs and raised their score to a solid 156 for one.

Jofra was reintroduced into the attack, and the England pacer achieved immediate success as he dismissed Kohli with a slow leg-cutter.

Padikkal followed suit as he sent a slower ball from Sandeep to Nitish Rana, who made a catch that should have been straightforward at extra cover after fumbling several times.

RCB captain Rajat Patidar was dismissed cheaply.

Read Also: Sunil Gavaskar Takes a Dig at Riyan Parag: Wonders if Captaincy Pressure Led to Dropped Catch of Phil Salt

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