{"id":1091,"date":"2026-05-14T06:50:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2026-05-14T06:50:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T06:50:05","slug":"kohli-keeps-putting-up-the-numbers-but-its-love-of-the-game-that-motivates-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/?p=1091","title":{"rendered":"Kohli keeps putting up the numbers but it’s love of the game that motivates him"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW DELHI: Virat Kohli says he wants to get the most out of the final few years of his all-time great career and the 37-year-old produced another batting master class with an unbeaten hundred to send Royal Challengers Bengaluru top of the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The former India captain, who now only plays in the 50-overs format internationally, has been in terrific form this season in the IPL and sits third in the run-scorers list of the Twenty20 competition.<\/p>\n

His unbeaten 105 off 60 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders was his ninth IPL century, two more than the next best Jos Buttler. He also became the quickest to 14,000 runs in T20 cricket, taking 14 innings fewer than West Indian Chris Gayle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love batting, even after all these (years),\u201d Kohli said after completing the chase in Raipur.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just give my heart and soul out there on the field, whether I\u2019m fielding or batting, because it\u2019s going to finish one day, and I want to make the most of every day that I\u2019m on the field and just enjoy myself and have a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

Kohli\u2019s one-format focus fuels strong IPL start<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSport teaches you a lot as a person as well. You build your character slowly and surely when you keep performing under pressure. And for me, even after all these years and numbers, it\u2019s still the love for the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love hitting the ball in the middle of the bat. And that joy is still there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kohli came into the match after back-to-back ducks in his previous two innings and pumped his fist in celebration after scoring the first run.<\/p>\n

Only 62 of his runs came from boundaries, the rest through nudges into gaps and hard running as he paced Bengaluru\u2019s chase of 193 to perfection with five balls to spare.<\/p>\n

Kohli said Indians\u2019 passion for cricket helped him maintain his standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason why people say pressure is a privilege. It actually keeps you humble, keeps you focused, makes you work hard at practice,\u201d he added. \u201cYou can\u2019t take things for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW DELHI: Virat Kohli says he wants to get the most out of the final few years of his all-time great career and the 37-year-old produced another batting master class with an unbeaten hundred to send Royal Challengers Bengaluru top of the Indian Premier League on Wednesday. The former India captain, who now only plays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypakistannews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}