Virat Kohli could not get going as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) took on Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their second game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. RCB's talisman struggled, scoring 31 off 30 balls, despite the team managing a healthy first innings total of 196. The only memorable moment of Kohli's knock came when he smashed CSK pacer Matheesha Pathirana for a six and a four right after being hit on the helmet by a bouncer from the Sri Lankan.
Bowling the 11th over, Pathirana's first ball was a sharp short delivery that struck Kohli on the helmet. Due to the hit, Kohli even had to be checked for concussion, as is mandatory.
However, Kohli appeared visibly charged up, and gave a spectacular response to the early hit.
The next ball by Pathirana was also pitched short, but this time Kohli was ready, getting into position and pulling it for six over fine leg. Right after that, Kohli timed his shot to perfection, chipping it over mid-wicket as it raced away for a boundary.
Watch: Virat Kohli's epic response after being hit on helmet
Kohli had been struggling on 16 runs off 22 balls before the start of the over, and the boundaries helped him climb over a strike rate of 100. Unfortunately for him, he was dismissed just two overs later. Kohli tried to slog Noor Ahmad for a maximum, but picked out the CSK fielder at deep mid-wicket.
Despite Kohli's struggles, RCB managed to post a healthy total, as they aimed to break the curse of having never won at CSK's Chepauk Stadium since 2008.
RCB put up 196/7 in 20 overs, led by captain Rajat Patidar's half-century (51 off 32 balls). Phil Salt (32 off 16), Devdutt Padikkal (27 off 14), Tim David (22 off 8) and Jitesh Sharma (12 off 6) also played handy cameos to help RCB towards a good total.