IPL 2025: Virat Kohli smashes T20 record, moves past Chris Gayle with another fifty for RCB

IPL 2025, RCB vs RR: Virat Kohli smashes another T20 record. (Photo: IPL)

Virat Kohli broke the record for the most half-centuries at a single venue in T20 cricket on Thursday, April 24, when he scored his 26th fifty at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Rajasthan Royals at home for the first time this IPL season thanks to their former captain’s 70 off of 42 balls.

Kohli broke the record of England's Alex Hales who struck 25 fifties at Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Additionally, Kohli's domination in the T20 format at a single location was demonstrated by his outstanding performance in all batting criteria, including average, fifties, centuries, and runs.

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In T20 cricket, Kohli now holds the record for the most fifties at a single venue with 26, followed by Hales with 25, James Vince with 24 at The Rose Bowl, Tamim Iqbal with 23 at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, and Jason Roy with 21 at The Oval.

After RCB won the match, Kohli said, “It (this venue) is the best place to play cricket in the IPL, and the fans backed us during good and bad times. It is a special place and have lot of special memories.”

In terms of the overall count of fifty-plus scores in T20 cricket, Kohli also passed Chris Gayle. Kohli now has 111 fifty-plus runs, second only to David Warner's 117, with 102 fifties and nine hundreds.

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Even though Kohli's knock came at a strike rate of 166 when he was dismissed for 70 – the pace at which he batted made sure that RCB didn't really slow down in spite of a rough start.

Between overs 11 and 15, both Padikkal and Kohli went into fifth gear before the Royals responded, causing a mini-collapse. Tim David and Jitesh Sharma hit brisk knocks to take RCB to 205, which was ultimately sufficient as the Royals were unable to complete yet another chase that was well within their grasp and third in a row.