Virat Kohli hailed Will Jacks’ 41-ball 100 against Gujarat Titans, terming the fifth-fastest IPL hundred ‘phenomenal’ and one of the better T20 hundreds hit. RCB rode on a 166-run unbeaten stand off 74 balls between Kohli and Jacks to chase down Titans’ 200 with four overs to spare in Ahmedabad on Sunday (April 28). Jacks had a fairly slow start to his innings, trudging along to a run-a-ball 17 in the first half of RCB’s chase. By then, though, Kohli had brought up his half-century and put the visitors on course for a successful chase. However, Jacks went on hyper-drive soon enough and after smashing Mohit Sharma for 29 runs in the 15th over, the Englishman meted out similar treatment to Rashid Khan in the next over as RCB completed the chase in 16 overs. “Phenomenal!” Kohli said after the win. “I mean when he [Jacks] initially came onto bat, he was a bit annoyed that he wasn’t able to strike the ball as cleanly as he wanted to, but the only conversation between us in the middle was to keep backing, keep committing because we know how explosive he can be. “My role completely changed as soon as he got that big over off Mohit, for good. I was glad to be watching the game from the other end. I mean, I thought we could win the game in 19 overs, but to finish it in 16 overs was an outstanding effort. I think it was one of the better T20 hundreds one would ever see, I was just happy to watch it closely from the other end.” Kohli, who became an excited spectator to Jacks’s hitting from the other hand, had carried the burden of RCB’s run-chase in the first half. Having been under scrutiny for his low scoring rate against spinners, Kohli took the attack to R Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmad and Rashid on Sunday. He scored 61 of his runs 70 runs against the spin trio, off only 34 balls and finished with a spin strike-rate of 179.41. He’s scored faster against spin on only two other occasions, against Gujarat Lions (188.46 SR) and Punjab Kings (240.90 SR) in that 2016 season. “The wicket was pretty good, I mean towards the later half of their innings, it started settling down and that was probably the reason why both teams wanted to bowl first,” he noted. That was evident, the temperature went down, it got cooler and as the wicket settled down, the ball started to come nicely onto the bat. I was just having fun out there, hitting boundaries whenever needed. We never allowed the run-rate to go under 10 runs per over at any point of the chase and to do that in the end what Jacks did.” In the process, Kohli also became the first batter to go past 500 runs this season. He has now achieved this landmark seven times in the history of the competition, which is the joint-most. When reminded, Kohli brushed the milestone aside and stated that the numbers did not bother him, especially the recent furore over his strike rate against spin. “All the people who talk about strike-rates and me not playing spin well are the ones talking about this stuff. For me, it’s about winning the games for the team and there’s a reason why you’ve done it for 15 years, you’ve done this day in and day out, you’ve won games for your teams, I’m not quite sure that if you haven’t been in that situation yourself, to sit and talk about the game from the box. “For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who have done day in and day out, they know what’s happening and it’s a kind of muscle memory for me now,” he said. While RCB continue to remain at the bottom, they have certainly found some momentum having won back-to-back games now. “We wanted to step up for ourselves, play for our self respect,” Kohli remarked. “We can’t be playing the way we played in the first half of the tournament, we wanted to see the ball as well, we are attacking way more, the fielders are putting their bodies on the line, that’s the way we want to play. “We haven’t been up to standards so far except the last two games, but we just want to continue the same way, we have a great atmosphere in the dressing room. We want to play for ourselves, have some self respect as to why we’re playing at this level and also for the fans who’ve been supporting us.”
