FILE PHOTO: Indian Premier League- Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore- Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India - May 9, 2023. Royal Challengers Bangalore's Virat Kohli in action. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
(Reuters) -Virat Kohli scored a record seventh Indian Premier League (IPL) century on Sunday but was unable to help Royal Challengers Bangalore claim the final playoff berth on offer as they slipped to a six-wicket defeat by Gujarat Titans.
Mumbai Indians, who beat Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier on Sunday, move on to the playoffs and will face the Lucknow Super Giants in Wednesday's eliminator game, while Gujarat will take on the Chennai Super Kings in Tuesday's playoff match.
"Obviously very disappointing," said Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis. "From our batting perspective, our top four contributed really well. We missed a few runs consistently throughout the season especially in the back-end of the innings,"
Bangalore had their qualification fate in their own hands and looked on course for victory on Sunday after Kohli scored 101 runs off 61 balls - his second century in as many games.
The 34-year-old's unbeaten knock, which saw him better Chris Gayle's record of six IPL centuries, propelled Bangalore to a total of 197-5, though Noor Ahmad picked up two wickets to slow their momentum.
Gujarat made a poor start to their chase as they lost Wriddhiman Saha cheaply, but Shubman Gill and Vijay Shankar combined for a massive partnership of 123 runs to wrest back control of the contest from Bangalore.
Gill continued to plug away after Shankar was dismissed on 53 by Vijaykumar Vyshak, scoring a century (104) of his own to lead defending champions Gujarat to their 10th win of the season and break Bangalore's hearts.
"The way we chased was really satisfying. Personally I should have finished it," Shankar said.
"It wasn't that easy with the new ball I felt ... that was the reason why we couldn't find many gaps along the ground. But Shubman showed everyone how to bat on different wickets."
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
