Virat Kohli has eight IPL hundreds to his name. But rarely has an almost-hundred been so devastating. Laced with six sixes and seven boundaries, 92 off 47 balls was exactly the kind of platform RCB needed to pile up 241/7 against Punjab Kings at Dharamsala before their bowlers held their nerve to close out a 60-run win and stay in the hunt for the playoffs.

But Kohli shouldn’t have even opened his account. Ashutosh Sharma had ample time to get into a good position after Kohli’s miscued hoick off Vidwath Kaverappa sent the ball swirling in the air. But he barely got a hand to it.

Given a life, Kohli made the most of it as RCB scored 119 in the first 10 overs and 122 in the next 10 after a rain-forced break. Kohli paced his innings like only he can—his first two sixes coming in the initial 6.1 overs before taking the aerial route again from the 15th over. If his fifty came in 32 balls, the next 42 came off 15.

“It was important for me to keep up the strike rate right through,” Kohli told the broadcasters during the innings break. “There was a two-paced feel with the new ball. We thought anything over 230 would be a good total here. That was the only mindset.”

At that stage of the tournament where points alone may not carry a team through to the IPL playoffs, strike rate has assumed critical importance. RCB didn’t skimp on that front. If Kohli’s strike rate of 195.74 was exhilarating, simply mindblowing was the way Rajat Patidar dismantled Punjab Kings’ bowling with a 23-ball 55. Also dropped on zero, Patidar carted six sixes—half of them off Rahul Chahar—as RCB rode a 27-ball 46 from Cameron Green and a seven-ball 18 from Dinesh Karthik to score their fourth-highest IPL total, and their highest away from home.

Pressed to maintain a rate of over 12 runs, Punjab Kings landed their share of punches too as they raced to 100 in just 8.2 overs. Rilee Rossouw was responsible for this momentum, picking apart Mohammed Siraj for 4,4,4,6 in the fourth over after he too was dropped by Mahipal Lomror at backward point in the previous over.

But Rossouw’s luck ultimately ran out in the ninth over when pulled Karn Sharma to Will Jacks at long-on. Shashank Singh kept hopes alive, striking at almost 200 before Kohli snuffed out Kings’ hopes by brilliantly running him out.

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