There been questions in the recent past about India batter Virat Kohli's form, his future and the calls for retirement have grown considerably as well. The batter, however, needed only two balls in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 game on Friday (Mar 28) to show why is he still relevant - despite retiring from T20Is last year following India's T20 World Cup win during which he was Player of the Match.
Playing for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Kohli was hit on head by a bouncer from Matheesha Pathirana - the physio came out to check on him.
Pathirana bowled the next one a bouncer as well which went for a six - showing why the bowlers across the world still fear him. Have a look at the moment below:
1st ball โ ๐ฎโ๐จ
โ Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) March 28, 2025
2nd ball โ 6๏ธโฃ
Thatโs what itโs like facing the GEN GOLD! โค
Classy counter from #ViratKohli! ๐๐ป
Watch LIVE action โก https://t.co/MOqwTBm0TB#IPLonJioStar ๐ #CSKvRCB | LIVE NOW on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 3 & JioHotstar! pic.twitter.com/MzSQTD1zQc
Other than those two ball, however, it was a struggling night for Kohli in general as he laboured his way to a 30-ball 31 with two sixes and a four. He was also not given strike much so much so that Kohli had only faced 22 balls in the first 10 overs of RCB's innings.
Kohli's partners although, kept the innings going well despite losing wickets at regular interval. Skipper Rajat Patidar played an important innings of 51 off 32 balls - the highest for his team.
Towards the end, Tim David scored unbeaten 22 off just eight balls including three back-to-back sixes in the last over which took RCB to 196/7 in 20 overs.
The highlight of the innings will also include CSK wicketkeeper-batter MS Dhoni's another lightning quick stumping - this time to dismiss Phil Salt but again off the bowling of Noor Ahmed.
For CSK, Noor was again pick of the bowlers with 3/36 in four overs while Pathirana picked two wickets for same number of runs