Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter Virat Kohli did everything in his power to lift his side into the IPL 2023 Playoff but even his heroics were on enough on Sunday. Kohli scored his second successive IPL century – a record seventh century in the T20 league – but it was Gujarat Titans opener Shubman Gill’s second hundred in a row which powered the defending champions to a six-wicket in their final league match against RCB at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and ensured that the home side failed to reach the Playoffs stage.


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RCB’s exit meant that Mumbai Indians, who had defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier in the day, would qualify as the fourth team after GT, Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants. Kohli, who scored a brilliant 101 off 61 balls with 13 fours and 1 six to power RCB to 197 for 5 was left teary-eyed towards the end of the match as Gill smashed 104 off 52 balls to ensure a GT with five balls to spare.


Check Virat Kohli’s teary-eyed picture after RCB loss HERE…



However, after breaking former West Indies opener Chris Gayle’s record for most hundreds in IPL, Kohli revealed that he is back playing his best in T20 cricket again. “Ya, I felt great. A lot of people feel my T20 cricket is declining, but I don’t feel like that at all. I feel I am playing my best T20 cricket again. I’m just enjoying myself, this is how I play T20 cricket. I look to hit gaps, hit a lot of boundaries and the big ones in the end if the situation allows me to,” Kohli told former Team India head coach Ravi Shastri during the mid-innings break.


“Strike rates, all those kind of things like I said in the past as well... You have to read the situation and rise up to the occasion when the situation demands, and that's something I take a lot of pride in doing, and I’ve been doing it for a while now. I feel really good with my game at the moment and how I’m batting out there in the middle,” Kohli added.



Meanwhile, Gill, who scored his second IPL century said that it was all about converting knocks into a ‘big one’. “It’s all about getting a start and converting it into a big one. Thankfully it’s working out for me in the business end. You have to keep applying yourself, that’s important. The new ball was holding on a bit. The ball was getting wet with the dew. I thought Vijay Shankar was trying to go too hard. Once he found the momentum, he hit it a long way. I know my game... for any player it’s important to know who you are. I think we have a great bowling attack for that (Chennai) wicket,” Gill said at the post-match presentation.


Gill and GT will now take on MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings in Qualifier 1 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday.