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Virat Kohli jumped from the eighth spot to second in the IPL 2025 Orange Cap list with a sublime knock against the Rajasthan Royals at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru opener hit 70 off 42 balls on a pitch that offered plenty of steep bounce to the fast bowlers. Kohli's half-century, his fifth in the current season, took his total tally to 392 runs in nine matches. Kohli is only behind Gujarat Titans youngster Sai Sudharan, who has scored 417 runs in eight matches to hold the Orange Cap firmly.
Kohli leapfrogged KL Rahul, Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Jos Buttler, Suryakumar Yadav, and Nicholas Pooran with that one 70-run knock against RR on Thursday.
So good was Kohli's innings that former India batter Suresh Raina wanted him to reverse his decision to retire from T20Is. Kohli announced his retirement from the shortest format of the game after winning the Player of the Match award in the T20 World Cup final against South Africa, which ended India's 13-year-long wait for an ICC title.
"Virat Kohli took an early retirement from T20Is. He could've easily played till 2026," Raina said on Star Sports.
In the process, Kohli also became the first player in the history of IPL to score more than 3500 runs at one venue (the Chinnaswamy).
Kohli, Padikkal take RCB to 205/5 against RR
Batting first after losing their fourth toss at home this season, RCB were off to a decent start after an eventful first over by Jofra Archer, who conceded 11 runs, including bowling a 149.8km bumper that bounced over the keeper for a four.
There was drama in the second over too, as a diving Riyan Parag, leading RR in the absence of injured Sanju Samson, dropped Phil Salt (26 off 23 balls) at mid-off after getting both hands to the ball off the bowling of Fazalhaq Farooqi.
After getting a boundary off a thick inside edge, Kohli pulled Archer for a four to the deep square leg region.
With RR looking for their breakthrough, medium pacer Tushar Deshpande was introduced into the attack, and Salt welcomed him with two boundaries on either side of the wicket.
Back on strike, Kohli flicked a Deshpande delivery that was asking to be punished for a boundary as RCB crossed 50 in the fifth over. With another lovely hit to the fence, off Sandeep Sharma, Kohli helped RCB finish the power play with 59 runs on the board.
Leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga gave RR their first breakthrough when he had Salt caught at deep mid-wicket after the batter got a leading edge as he shaped up to hoick the ball on the on-side.
Kohli got to his half-century in 32 balls, his fifth of the season and first at home, after collecting back-to-back fours off Sandeep.
At the other end, Padikkal was in his element as he kept scoring boundaries at will and was also helped by a drop catch by Deshpande in the deep off Hasaranga.
Kohli and Padikkal then started dealing in sixes against Parag and Deshpande, with the latter bowler being smashed for three maximums in the 15th over, which fetched RCB 22 runs and took their score to a strong 156 for one.
Jofra was brought back into the attack and the England pacer got instant success, as he dismissed Kohli with a slow leg-cutter.
Padikkal followed suit as he hit a Sandeep slower ball to Nitish Rana, who completed what should have been a simple take at extra cover after fumbling multiple times.
RCB captain Rajat Patidar got out cheaply.
