Match No. 61 of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the HPCA Stadium, Dharamshala. During the run chase, Virat Kohli showed excellent presence of mind and experience as a former captain as he helped Jitesh Sharma take the wicket of Priyansh Arya.
The incident occurred during the very first over of the match, when the southpaw tried the third ball of Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s first over and mistimed the ball as it was going from the bottom edge towards midwicket and Romario Shepherd took a simple catch. Virat Kohli got excited after Priyansh was out for zero.
Virat Kohli uses his tactical genius
Virat Kohli bid a fond farewell to the young Delhi batsman, who has been struggling to score runs in recent times. Teams have recognized his weakness and he is experiencing body cramps while bowling, where he finds it difficult to play shots. Before this match, he had only one half-century in the last five innings.
Virat Kohli tactical masterclass. pic.twitter.com/s4mJggSEX6
– Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) 17 May 2026
It can be clearly seen in the video that Virat was gesturing towards Jitesh for a pull shot, which Priyansh plays well, but it was the trap that worked against the aggressive opener. The left-handed batsman needs to work on his weakness to survive for a long time in a tournament like IPL, otherwise he will be dropped from the team soon along with the new talent in Indian cricket.
Virat Kohli achieved a new milestone
The former India captain has overtaken Chris Gayle in the last match to score the fastest 14,000 runs in T20. After scoring a century in the last game, he scored a half-century in this afternoon’s match. He scored seven runs during the match and as an opener he has scored 5500+ runs.
The 37-year-old player crossed 500+ runs in the second edition of IPL and became the only player to score more than 500 runs for the 9th time in the history of the tournament. His performance this season has been excellent
Many more to follow…
Also Read: Venkatesh Iyer goes all out on Thalapathy Vijay after sensational half-century for RCB against PBKS in IPL 2026
