‘King’ in IPL 2026 Kohli’s royal debut, Virat again told why he is the world’s biggest chase master

By Samira Vishwas On Mar 29, 2026

Why is Virat Kohli the Greatest Chase Master: Virat Kohli made a great start to his season by scoring a half-century in the very first match of IPL 2026. In this match played against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he played an important role in taking RCB closer to victory. Kohli, coming in as an opening batsman, completed his half-century in 33 balls and returned to the pavilion after remaining unbeaten till the end, leading the team to victory. He played an inning of 69 runs in 38 balls, which included 5 fours and 5 sixes and his strike rate was 181.

played an important role in the match

This innings of Kohli gave a strong base to RCB’s run chase. Even though there was pressure on the team in the beginning, Kohli batted aggressively and maintained control over the opposition bowlers. His batting kept the run pace consistent and helped the team reach the target easily.

Chase Master at Work ⚠️
Virat Kohli brings up his 6️⃣4️⃣th #TATAIPL half-century👏
Updates ▶️ #TATAIPL | #KhelBindaas | #RCBvSRH | @RCBTweets | @imVkohli pic.twitter.com/juU4F6f6tn
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 28, 2026

return after a long hiatus

Virat Kohli came on the field after a long time. He last participated in the ODI series against New Zealand, after which he stayed away from international and major matches. However, positive news was continuously coming out regarding his fitness and preparation, the effect of which was now clearly visible in his performance on the field.

Virat made this record

With this half-century, Kohli also made many records in his name. He is the highest run-scorer in IPL history and has now also become the player with the most number of half-centuries on one ground. So far he has scored 8730 runs in 260 innings of 268 IPL matches. He is also among the top players in terms of sixes and has hit 296 sixes so far, which places him at third place after Rohit Sharma and Chris Gayle.

Also read: RCB celebrated IPL 2026 with victory, defeated SRH by 6 wickets in the first match of the season.

Apart from Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal played a quick inning of 61 runs in 26 balls for RCB. Captain Rajat Patidar scored 31 runs in 12 balls, while Tim David added 16 not out in 10 balls. With the help of these innings, RCB achieved the target of 202 runs given by Sunrisers Hyderabad by losing 4 wickets in 15.4 overs and won the match by 6 wickets.