Virat Kohli’s 28 off 18 against Chennai Super Kings on Sunday did not become one of his biggest IPL innings, but it still turned into a landmark one. At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru opener moved past Rohit Sharma to register the most runs scored against a single opponent in T20 cricket, taking his overall tally against CSK to 1,188. He needed only two runs at the start of the match to go beyond Rohit’s previous mark of 1,161 against Kolkata Knight Riders, and he got there inside the first over.
In T20 cricket, records against a single opponent are not easy to build because they demand more than just dominance. They require longevity, repeated selection, sustained batting quality and enough meetings across years to keep adding to the tally. Kohli has managed all of that against CSK, one of RCB’s biggest rivals and one of the most successful teams in the tournament’s history.
Most runs against one team in T20 cricket
Before Sunday, Virat Kohli had already built an extraordinary body of work against Chennai. Across the IPL, he had been RCB’s most consistent batter in this fixture, and the runs had come not through one explosive phase but over a long stretch of relevance. That is what separates this milestone from a short-term statistical spike. It reflects not just form, but endurance at the top level.
There is another layer to it as well. The Kohli-CSK rivalry has often existed inside a broader contest where Chennai have historically held the upper hand over Bengaluru in the head-to-head. Yet on an individual level, Kohli has continuously found ways to score against them. Sunday’s innings extended that pattern again.
Kohli was dismissed for 28 by Anshul Kamboj with RCB at 37 for 1 in 4.3 overs, so this was not the kind of innings that would usually dominate the post-match conversation on its own. But because of the numbers attached to it, it became one of the defining statistical moments.
In a format built around speed, innovation and instant impact, Kohli’s latest record is a reminder that T20 greatness is not only about how quickly a player scores. Sometimes it is also about how long he keeps doing it, and how often he does it against the strongest opposition. Against CSK, Kohli has now turned sustained excellence into a place of his own in cricket history.
