Virat Kohli hits fifth IPL ton, his 1st of this season

Kohli, who got off to a slow but steady start bringing up his fifty in 40 balls, took another 17 balls to slam his fifth hundred in IPL and his first of this season.

Kolkata: Indian captain Virat Kohli accelerated his World Cup preparations with a 57-ball 100 for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) here at the Edens Gardens on Friday. Riding on Kohli's fifth IPL ton, RCB posted 213 for 4 from their 20 overs in a jaw-dropping clash against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

Kohli, who got off to a slow but steady start bringing up his fifty in 40 balls, took another 17 balls to slam his fifth hundred in IPL and his first of this season.

Earlier, David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, KL Rahul and Sanju Samson slammed a hundred each in the 12th edition of IPL. Kohli, who slammed four centuries in a record tumbling season in 2016, is now at the second spot in the list of most centuries. He sits just behind his former RCB teammate Chris Gayle who now has six centuries.

Both Kohli and Gayle slammed five centuries each for RCB, the most for any team in IPL history. Among the teams, RCB hold the record of most number of centuries till date with 13 centuries.

The 30-year-old run-machine smashed nine fours and four sixes before he fell to the penultimate delivery of the RCB's innings off Harry Gurney's bowling.

Meanwhile, England all-rounder Moeen Ali played a blistering knock off 66 off 28 balls, hitting six sixes and five fours to give Kohli a solid company in the middle.

In reply to 214 runs target, KKR got off to a nightmarish start as they lost four wickets for 79 runs before Nitish Rana (85 off 46) and Andre Russell (65 off 25) built 118 runs partnership to pull their team out of danger zone. However, their herculean efforts went in vain as KKR were restricted for 203 for 5, 10 runs short of RCB's total.

In the meantime, Dale Steyn, who donned the RCB jersey after 3128 days, picked up two wickets to reduce KKR to 3 for 33 in the fifth over.