On an empirical scenario, Virat Kohli’s team Bengaluru’s Indian T20 League stint has all but ended following their 16 runs loss to Delhi. If we speak through numbers coupled with all the permutations and combination, there’s still a slightest of hope alive for them.
Up next for them is a fixture of pride, as Steve Smith takes his equally struggling Rajasthan team at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. While Kohli has told his players to go and have fun, he will be vying for a personal record during the game.
Kohli’s tally of 23 runs against Delhi took his tournament’s total to 423 runs and he now only needs 77 more runs to reach the 500-run mark in the tournament. What’s so unique about reaching 500? Well, if he manages to surpass the aforementioned numbers, he will become the first player to score 500 (or more) runs in six different editions of the Indian T20 League.
As of now, he is tied with Hyderabad’s David Warner who has scored 500 plus scores on five different occasions (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019). Next in the list are Chris Gayle, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina, who have surpassed the total on three occasions.
Meanwhile, this will be the final Indian T20 League game for Rajasthan captain Steve Smith before he departs to be with his squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
Following the Rajasthan game, Bengaluru will play their final league fixture against team Hyderabad, who will be without the likes of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner, as the duo has left the tournament owing to their international commitment.
