Kohli smashes 5 fours in a row off Rabada, then falls to him for 28

Five balls. Five fours. And a stadium of 130,000 people who had barely settled into their seats already on their feet.

That was Virat Kohli’s opening statement at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday evening, as Royal Challengers Bengaluru faced Gujarat Titans in IPL 2026. Before most fans had finished finding their seats, Kohli had already settled an old score, broken into an exclusive club, and handed Kagiso Rabada’s first over back to him like a returned package he did not want.

The over was the second of RCB’s innings. Rabada steamed in. And Kohli went: 4, 4, 4, 4, 4.

Five consecutive boundaries. 21 runs off 6 deliveries. An over that Rabada would rather forget and Kohli will remember for a long time.

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The record that Kohli matched on Wednesday evening is small in length but elite in company. Only 2 other RCB batsmen in IPL history had hit 5 consecutive fours in a single over before him. Chris Gayle did it against Ishwar Pandey of Pune Warriors India, at Bengaluru in 2013. Shane Watson matched that against Thisara Perera of Rising Pune Supergiant, again at Bengaluru, in 2016. Now Kohli has joined them, at Ahmedabad, in 2026, against Rabada of all people.

The choice of victim makes the moment that much richer. Kohli and Rabada have been exchanging blows across formats and franchises for years. Coming into this match, Kohli had managed 111 runs off 79 balls against the South African quick in T20 cricket overall, a record that includes 13 fours and 3 sixes. That is not a one-sided rivalry. These two know each other very well.

Which is exactly why that first over was so breathtaking. Kohli did not ease into it. He attacked from the first ball, finding the rope 5 times in succession, playing through the off side and straight down the ground with the kind of clean ball-striking that looks almost effortless when it is going right. On the 6th delivery, Rabada just managed to save himself from complete humiliation, the field cutting off what would have been his 6th consecutive boundary.

21 runs. 5 fours. One over. And Kohli standing at the non-striker’s end with the look of a man who had done exactly what he came to do.

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The crowd roared. The replays rolled. The record was noted. And then Rabada came back for his second over.

That is the thing about Kagiso Rabada. He is not the type who accepts a hammering and fades into the background. He is fast, he is experienced, and he has dismissed enough big names under pressure to know how to reset. The 5-over break between his two spells would have given him time to think. He knew what had just happened. He also knew what he was going to do about it.

In his second over, Rabada went short. A well-disguised short-pitched delivery, just the kind that is hard to play well when you are in full attacking flow. Kohli went for the big shot. The timing was off. The ball climbed and held, and Rashid Khan at short fine leg judged it perfectly.

Caught. Dismissed. 28 off 13 balls.

Rabada had his revenge. And more than that, he had his 5th T20 dismissal of Virat Kohli, adding another chapter to a rivalry that has now given cricket fans something to talk about across three different years of the IPL.

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The short ball is a classic counter-attacking weapon. When a batsman has just played 5 fours through the off side, his weight and his instinct shift forward. The ball that jags back, or lifts steeply from a shorter length, asks a completely different question. Rabada read the situation, changed the plan, and executed it.

There is a reason Rabada has dismissed Kohli 5 times in T20 cricket. Both players understand each other’s game extremely well. Kohli is decisive and assertive at the crease. Rabada is precise and relentless. When they meet, neither man gives anything away cheaply. The 5 fours were Kohli’s assertion. The wicket was Rabada’s answer.

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From a team perspective, Kohli’s 28 off 13 gave RCB the kind of start that sets the tempo for an innings. Even if the wicket came cheaply by his standards, those 28 runs in the early overs carry extra weight. Scoring quickly in the first 6 overs, the powerplay phase, forces the fielding captain to recalibrate. Gaps appear. Pressure builds on other bowlers. And RCB, when Kohli fires early, often find that the momentum carries well beyond his individual contribution.

GT, meanwhile, will be relieved that Rabada bounced back. His first over would have shaken the team’s confidence in his spell economy. A bowler who concedes 21 in his opening over but then dismisses the danger man two overs later has done something important for his side’s temperament. The game, from that moment, was live again.

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What this moment also does is underline just how well IPL 2026 has been playing out. The tournament is deep enough into the season now that individual rivalries have become part of the conversation. Fans track head-to-head records. They know that Kohli vs Rabada is not just bat versus ball, it is 5 seasons of accumulated history being settled one over at a time.

Kohli is 37. He is not playing at the pace of a man slowing down. Those 5 consecutive fours were not defensive strokes put to the boundary. They were attacking, clinical, premeditated. He saw Rabada coming, he backed himself, and he made a world-class fast bowler look ordinary for 25 deliveries.

That he fell to Rabada a few overs later does not diminish it. If anything, it makes the story better. The set got shared. Kohli took the first game. Rabada took the next one. That is what a real rivalry looks like.

For cricket fans watching the IPL from across the country, this is the kind of passage of play that stays with you long after the scorecard is forgotten. Not just the 5 fours, or the catch by Rashid Khan, but the sheer enjoyment of watching two of the best practitioners of their craft go at each other in front of a full house.

There will be more overs between these two before this season is done. Each one feels like a must-watch.