IPL 2026: Virat Kohli exchanges flying kisses with Anushka Sharma after powering RCB to victory in season opener

Bengaluru: Star batter Virat Kohli lit up the inaugural match of IPL 2026, smashing a sublime half-century to guide defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to a comfortable six-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.

How did Virat Kohli celebrate RCB win?

After ensuring that RCB kicked off their title defence on a winning note, the former Team India skipper indulged in some light-hearted celebrations, blowing a flying kiss towards his wife Anushka Sharma, who was present in the stands. The crowd loved it, capping off a memorable night in Bengaluru.

How did Virat Kohli perform?

Virat Kohli has made a sensational impact in the very first match of the IPL season. He has kicked off his 19th IPL campaign with a half-century. On Saturday, in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kohli smashed a magnificent fifty and played a pivotal role in guiding his team close to victory. With this half-century, Kohli has also added several records to his name. Opening the innings for RCB, Kohli completed his half-century in just 33 balls. Kohli walked off the field unbeaten after leading RCB to victory. He played a powerful innings of 69 runs off 38 balls, striking at a rate of 181. During this knock, Kohli struck five fours and five sixes.

Kohli was making a return to the field after a long hiatus. He had last participated in the ODI series against New Zealand and had not been seen on the big stage of cricket since then. However, his preparation had been going splendidly—a fact confirmed by several of his teammates—and the results of that hard work are now clearly visible. The extent of the transformation in Kohli's batting can be gauged from the fact that, in today's match, he dealt in sixes just as effectively as he did in fours.

What landmarks did Virat Kohli achieve?

It is worth noting that Virat Kohli is already the highest run-scorer in the history of the IPL. With this half-century, he has also become the batter with the most half-centuries scored at a single venue in the history of the league. To date, Kohli has played a total of 268 IPL matches, scoring 8,730 runs across 260 innings. In terms of hitting sixes in this league, he ranks third, trailing only Rohit Sharma and Chris Gayle. He has hit a total of 296 sixes in his IPL career and is now tantalizingly close to reaching the 300-six ​​milestone.

For RCB, alongside Virat Kohli's powerful innings of 69 runs, Devdutt Padikkal also made a significant contribution, scoring 61 runs off 26 balls. Rajat Patidar scored 31 runs off 12 balls, and eventually, Tim David contributed 16 runs off 10 balls, enabling the team to chase down the target of 202 runs—set by Sunrisers Hyderabad—in just 15.4 overs for the loss of 4 wickets, thereby winning the match by 6 wickets.