IPL 2021: Virat Kohli brings up baby celebration, dedicates fifty to his daughter

The 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is entering into the third week and in a pleasant change for the viewers and fans across the world, the Royal Challengers Bangalore sit atop the table with eight points. After 16 games, Virat Kohli’s is the only side that has not tasted even a single defeat so far, winning all four games they have played.

Apart from their on-field performance, what has also been on a steady rise is the margins of their victory. RCB defeated Mumbai Indians in the tournament opener by 2 wickets, and a 6-run followed against Sunrisers Hyderabad. They restricted Kolkata Knight Riders 38 runs short, while their most recent win, against the Rajasthan Royals, was a massive 10-wicket win.

Staying on top of the game right from the onset, the Challengers had reduced their adversary to 43/4 in eight overs before a young middle-order of the Royals stood up with cameos to ensure that their bowlers had something to defend.

Chasing 178 for their fourth consecutive win, RCB went on to decimate RR through a whopping 181-run stand between centurion Devdutt Padikkal, who smacked 11 fours and six sixes in his unbeaten 52-ball 101, and Virat Kohli, who notched up his first fifty in IPL 2021, a 47-ball 73 en route to which he also became the first IPL batsmen to reach the landmark of 6000 runs. The record partnership meant that RCB killed the chase with 21 balls to spare to record a Net Run Rate boosting win and also displace Chennai Super Kings from the top spot of the table.

Virat Kohli dedicates his knock to his daughter

Both Kohli and Padikkal, who hot his maiden century in the league, played a pile of eye-catching stroke in what was the biggest opening partnership in the franchise’s history. Although, what was equally eye-catching was how the skipper Kohli chose to celebrate when he reached his fifty.

As he nudged a single to reach the landmark, he blew a kiss towards his family in the stands, acknowledging his wife and daughter with the bat. He dedicated the knock to his daughter by imitating a baby-sitting gesture from the ground and that went viral in no time.