IPL 2020 / KL Rahul smashes 1st hundred of IPL 2020 off 62 balls after Kohli drops him twice

Cricket Desk: KL Rahul smashed the first century of the 2020 Indian Premier League to propel Kings XI Punjab to a daunting 206 for 3 against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday.

Rahul played the role of sheet anchor, scoring 132 off 69 balls that were laced with 14 boundaries and seven sixes.

However, the right-hander was also given a couple of reprives by none other than Bangalore captain Virat Kohli who dropped a sitter when he was batting on 83.

Trying to smash Dale Steyn’s low full toss, Rahul didn’t get enough to clear the long boundary in Dubai. Kohli moved to his right and seemingly overran a bit. Instead of staying back, he ran around the boundary and then took a step inward. Had he stayed back then he would have probably been at the right place.

IPL MATCH.... VIRAT KOHLI MISS CATCH😭 pic.twitter.com/ZmhQ3cDiwn

— Azrat_Jaan41 (@tweets_41) September 25, 2020

Lady luck continued to smile on Rahul when Kohli once again dropped him on 89 an over later, this time off Navdeep Saini.

It was a slower ball to which Rahul got a leading edge as he went for the glory shot. As the ball sailed towards long-off, Kohli once again ran in but spilled it yet again. This was a much easier chance than the previous one. After the error, the RCB skipper wriggled his hand, gesturing that the ball might have been wet due to dew. Rahul ultimately went on to score a scintillating 132 not out off 69 balls.

After the match, Kohli had no qualms in taking the blame for dropping Kings XI Punjab skipper KL Rahul twice, which contributed significantly to their 97-run defeat here on Thursday.

Kohli felt had he not dropped Rahul, who remained unbeaten on 132, twice KXIP would not have been able to go past the 200-run mark. “I have to stand in front and take the brunt of it, not the best day in the office, couple of important chances of KL when he was set and that cost us 35-40 runs at a later stage. Maybe if we restricted them to 180 we wouldn’t have been under pressure from ball one of the chase,” said Kohli at the post-match presentation.

Most drops in IPL last six seasons:

Virat Kohli – 15

Ravi Jadeja – 14

Robin Uthappa – 12

Harbhajan Singh – 12