Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) did the unimaginable and chased a target of 228 runs against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) which booked their spot in Qualifier 1 against Punjab Kings (PBKS) on May 29. RCB displayed a pure team effort and sailed through with Virat Kohli (54), Mayank Agarwal (41) and Jitesh Sharma (85) being the top scorers for the team. The stand-in skipper Jitesh Sharma came in and conquered, he started his innings when RCB was losing wickets but handling the situation under pressure, he took the match deep and won it.

After RCB’s dashing victory, Dinesh Karthik heaped huge praise about Virat Kohli and called him “genius par excellence.”

“Genius par excellence, that’s the start, I’ll say for Virat Kohli. Across 18 seasons, he already averages, not averages, he’s got 9000 runs, which is 500 runs a season. People managed to get that 12 seasons. Hayden has got it a few times more, but it is such a hard ask. But for him to come churn out runs every year, have that motivation, even in warmups, the way he feels,” Karthik said.

“I was just hitting a few balls to him, the speed at which it comes back in the mid, it tells you the man has got so much passion and intensity with anything he wants to do, and that’s such a brilliant attribute for any young boy and girl wanting to play sport, forget cricket, just the passion, the hard work, the dedication, with every minute you spend towards the sport. He is a walking example of that,” he added.

Virat Kohli surpassed the 9000 runs mark for one single franchise following which he became the first player ever to achieve this milestone. He went on to play a very crucial knock in the match, chasing a target of 228 runs and laid down a solid foundation for other players as well. He has displayed a consistent form throughout and in all the under-pressure matches.