Pakistan cricketer Junaid Khan took a brutal dig at Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Virat Kohli after he scored the joint-slowest Indian Premier League (IPL) century against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) during the weekend.
Trolling Virat Kohli for his unwanted record, Junaid Khan posted on X: “Congratulations Virat Kohli on the slowest 100 in the history of IPL.”
Virat Kohli completed his century against the Rajasthan Royals in 67 balls and carried the bat through to an unbeaten 113, ending RCB's allocated 20 overs with the joint-slowest ton in the IPL. In 2009, out-of-favor Team India batter Manish Pandey scored his century in the same number of balls against the Deccan Chargers.
Overall, he faced 72 balls during his innings – the third-highest in the Indian Premier League.
New Zealander Brendon McCullum smashed an unbeaten 158 off 73 balls in the maiden IPL clash in 2008 while Manish Pandey needed 73 deliveries for his unbeaten 114 vs the Deccan Chargers the following year.
Interestingly, it was his record-extending eighth century in the IPL.
Also, Virat Kohli became the first player to score more than 7500 runs in the IPL. His run tally for the RCB in the IPL now stands at 7579 runs.
In addition to that, the Delhi-born cricketer has made 424 runs for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the now-defunct Champions League T20 tournament. Across the two events, Virat Kohli has scored 8003 runs for the RCB, making him the first player to compile that many runs for a single team in the T20 format.
It was Virat Kohli's ninth century in T20 cricket, having also slammed one for Team India against Afghanistan during the Asia Cup in September 2022. Only two men have more tons in the 20-over format – Chris Gayle (22) and Babar Azam (10).
Though Virat Kohli looked fluid from the word go, he did not explode initially, relying largely on rotating the strike and smashing an odd boundary whenever the Rajasthan Royals bowlers erred in their line and length.
However, as his innings progressed, Virat Kohli grew in confidence and began hitting boundaries and sixes at will.
But once, RCB captain and his opening partner Faf du Plessis fell for 44 in the 14th over after an opening stand of 125 runs, the onus came back on Virat Kohli to take his team to a fine total.
Virat Kohli grabbed the opportunity with both hands, delivering the goods in a challenging environment as he smacked 42 runs in his last 22 balls, with six boundaries and a maximum.
Keeping all these milestones in mind, Virat Kohli's admirers criticized Rohit Sharma's fans by reminding them of the latter's duck against the same team on April 1.
They argued that a hundred was better than a low score on any given day.
Some dubbed statements made by Rohit Sharma's fans against Virat Kohli as “shameful”, noting that the 35-year-old was carrying the burden of the RCB side that was struggling for runs on the field.
Unfortunately for Virat Kohli, RCB's big names – Glenn Maxwell and Cameroon Green, famous for their explosive batting, failed to get going and that's why RCB was denied the late flourish that could have taken them to a total of 200.
His ton eventually went in vain as Rajasthan Royals batters, Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson's splendid knocks of 100 off 58 deliveries, and 69 off 42 balls, respectively, powered the home side to a six-wicket win at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
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