RCB vs KXIP: Virat Kohli, IPL's Real Daredevil, Reveals How He Vanquished Pain

Virat Kohli's intensity as a captain, who loves to lead his team from the front, was once again on show at Royal Challengers Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday night.

Kohli struck his fourth century for RCB and his 147-run stand with Chris Gayle (73) was the cornerstone of RCB's 82-run win (D/L method) against Kings XI Punjab.

Kohli's monster knock (113 off 50 balls) killed KXIP's morale and Murali Vijay's team once again suffered due to a bunch of non-performing foreigners like David Miller.

RCB, second in the standings, are now with a realistic chance of winning a playoff berth, a position that Kohli's team never thought of midway through the tournament.

'When I got the flow, the pain went away'

Kohli, the tournament's leading scorer with 865 runs, returned as Man of the Match. He braved pain and stitches in his left palm webbing to smash eight sixes and a dozen fours to plunder a quality KXIP attack.

"I didn't hit any balls because I was injured, but when I settled down, I thought I shouldn't think about my stitches. When I got the flow going, and the pain went away, I was able to play shots," Kohli said after the match.

A man who is increasingly backing his abilities, Kohli said it was possible to score a century in a rain-hit game reduced to 15 overs-a-side.

"I thought surely I can't get a 100 in 15 overs. Chris, looked dangerous in the last game, he was in the zone again today. Everything is coming together.

"In the previous tournaments, we panicked. But hopefully, we can continue what we have been doing. My main aim is to get runs, it doesn't matter how I play. Momentum is a big thing in T20s."

Virat Kohli braved nine stitches on his left hand to smash his fourth ton of the IPL 2016 season.

© BCCI

Virat Kohli and his sense of time management

Kohli's sense of timing and his attitude towards the game is clearly reflecting on his batting. For him, a T20 game is all about three hours of full focus.

"T20s is just three hours a day. You still have 21 hours away, so why relax on the field? Today was a shortened game, but I was glad we got 15 overs in," said the RCB skipper.

Not only a playoff berth, Kohli is backing RCB to win their first IPL crown.

"There's no reason why we can't win. We have got to that stage, where we've stopped thinking about other teams. We are just relaxed, the guys in the dugout are doing a great job. We've got the momentum now."

RCB play their last game against Delhi Daredevils on Sunday. On form, Kohli's team should emerge the real daredevils at Raipur.