Virat Kohli Scores His Fastest IPL Century Ever: Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter Virat Kohli has scored the fastest century of his long and illustrious IPL career, doing so in a final against the Gujarat Titans.
Tonight’s RCB vs GT game is the final of IPL 2026, played between two teams that finished in the top two of the league table. The match is being played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, and saw the away team win the toss and decide to bowl first on a pitch that was a bit sticky.
IPL 2026 Final: Virat Kohli Scores His Fastest IPL Century Ever
To open the batting for the Titans came their in-form batting duo of Sai Sudharsan and captain Shubman Gill. The two became the first duo from a single team to score over 700 runs in one IPL season and stood second and third in the race for the Orange Cap behind Rajasthan Royals’ Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
However, the two fell quite early today. Gill was the first one to be dismissed in the third over, being dismissed by Josh Hazlewood for 10 off eight. Then, in the next over, a resurgent Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who ensured that he would win the Purple Cap, dismissed Sudharsan after the latter scored a run-a-ball 12.
Most GT batters did not take charge tonight. Nishant Sandhu got out for 20, and Jos Buttler scored 19 before his dismissal. In the 13th over, the score was 73/4.
Arshad Khan made 15 runs, and none of the remaining Titans batters scored over 10, besides Washington Sundar, who came in as the saviour for his side and scored a fighting half century, going not out for 50 off 37 and taking his team to a total of 155/8 in 20 overs, a score well below par.
In response, for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the pair of Virat Kohli and Venkatesh Iyer opened the batting. The two went ham, taking the score to 55 runs in four overs before Iyer was dismissed for 32 off 16.
And while Devdutt Padikkal at No. 3 departed for cheap, Kohli at the other end was enjoying a flying start, batting at 35 off 12 at the end of the powerplay. The team score was 70/3 at the six-overs mark.
Having accumulated about half the runs for the chase in the powerplay itself, Virat decided to slow down and batted cautiously alongside team captain Rajat Patidar.
A twist in the tale came in the ninth over, as Rashid Khan took the wickets of Patidar and Krunal Pandya in the same over. At the end of it the score was 91/4. While the required run rate wasn’t too high, RCB was in danger of an unlikely yet devastating collapse.
This situation resulted in Virat Kohli starting to play the anchor role he is most famous for. Meanwhile, Tim David continued to keep the scoreboard moving.
In the 12th over, Kohli reached his half-century in 25 deliveries, achieving the milestone with a strike rate of over 200. This is the fastest 50 in the 19-year-long IPL career of the great Indian cricketer.
Before this game, his fastest IPL half-century came all the way back in 2018 against the Rajasthan Royals, where he took 26 deliveries to reach the score.
Virat Kohli ended up taking RCB to the finish line. In the 18th over, he hit a six to finish the game, being not out for 75 off 42. He played a composed innings, which was also quite quick, taking his team home in a tricky chase in the IPL 2026 final.
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