Kohli Becomes First Batter to Reach 9,000 IPL Runs as RCB Demolish Delhi for 75

It was always going to be a special evening at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Virat Kohli arrived at the crease in Delhi needing just 11 more runs to become the first batter in the 19-year history of the Indian Premier League to score 9,000 runs. What nobody could have predicted was the manner in which the evening would unfold: a catastrophic Delhi Capitals collapse, a bowling masterclass from two veterans, and Kohli calmly threading a single to long off to complete a milestone that may stand unchallenged for a generation. 

9,000

IPL Runs   Virat Kohli   A World First

Kohli reached the landmark off 12 deliveries in his 275th IPL appearance, hitting a single to long off against Delhi captain Axar Patel in the sixth over of the chase. He finished unbeaten on 23 off 14 balls. Total IPL tally now stands at 9,012 runs across 275 matches, with 8 centuries and 66 fifties.

The milestone arrived, fittingly, in a match RCB were never going to lose. By the time Kohli walked to the crease, his side already needed just 68 runs from what remained of the match, after Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar had reduced Delhi Capitals to rubble in one of the most devastating spells of new-ball bowling this IPL season has produced. Hazlewood returned figures of 4 for 12, and Bhuvneshwar 3 for 5, the pair combining to send Delhi crashing to 8 runs for 6 wickets before the fourth over was even complete. 

Bhuvneshwar’s very second delivery uprooted debutant Sahil Parakh’s middle stump, and Hazlewood responded by removing KL Rahul and Nitish Rana in quick succession, the Capitals’ top order powerless against a combination of sharp inswing, skidding cutters and inch-perfect yorkers. What made the collapse particularly stunning was the context: Delhi had posted a towering total of 264 against Punjab Kings just two days prior. On Monday evening, they could not get past 75, the lowest score any team has registered in this season’s tournament. Only a resolute 30 from impact substitute Abishek Porel, and minor contributions from David Miller and Kyle Jamieson, prevented the Capitals from suffering an even more historic humiliation. 

A dust storm briefly halted play midway through the Delhi innings, providing the struggling Capitals a momentary reprieve from the assault, but it changed nothing. Suyash Sharma and Rasikh Salam Dar mopped up the lower order, and Delhi were bowled out for 75 in 16.3 overs.

In reply, Jacob Bethell gave the chase a brisk start before falling for 20, and from that point it was Devdutt Padikkal and Kohli who guided RCB serenely home. Playing his 275th IPL game, Kohli reached the 9,000-run landmark on the final delivery of the sixth over, pushing a full delivery from Axar Patel to long off for a single to reach the unprecedented milestone. He had needed 11 runs before the match; he got there in just 12 deliveries.

Then, with the target within touching distance and the record already secured, Kohli cut loose. He clobbered T Natarajan for two consecutive sixes to wrap up the chase in the very next over, RCB completing a nine-wicket win in 6.3 overs. Padikkal finished unbeaten on 34, but the evening belonged entirely to Kohli.

The scale of Kohli’s dominance as the IPL’s all-time leading run scorer is staggering. His nearest challenger, India teammate Rohit Sharma, has accumulated 7,183 runs, placing Kohli 1,829 runs clear at the summit — a gap so vast that no active player is realistically on course to bridge it. According to Outlook India, not a single other batter has even crossed the 8,000-run mark. Kohli also holds the record for the most fifties in IPL history with 66, alongside eight centuries, the most recent of which came earlier in IPL 2026.

Hazlewood was named Player of the Match. Speaking at the post-match presentation, the Australian expressed quiet satisfaction with how he and Bhuvneshwar had assessed and exploited the conditions. “When the ball was nice and hard, it was tough to bat,” he said. “We summed up conditions quickly and adapted. Feel like we are hitting our straps again at the right time.” RCB captain Rajat Patidar admitted even he had not expected the evening to go quite this way, giving full credit to his bowlers for seizing the initiative so completely.

The result pushed RCB to second on the IPL 2026 points table with 12 points from eight matches, and boosted their already strong net run rate to 1.919. Delhi Capitals, meanwhile, slipped to seventh place with just 6 points from eight games, their dramatic batting collapse raising serious questions about the consistency of a side that had looked so destructive just 48 hours earlier. For Kohli, the record is simply the latest chapter in an IPL story that shows no sign of reaching its final page.

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