On Friday, star batter of Royal Challengers Bengaluru Virat Kohli shattered a sensational world record during the IPL 2026 match versus Sunrisers Hyderabad. For the opening wicket, Virat Kohli stitched together a 60-run stand with Venkatesh Iyer and it was the his 211st 50-plus stand that he was a part of in T20 cricket. The record for being a part of the most 50-plus stands in men’s T20 currently holds by Virat Kohli as Virat surpassed former England cricket team batter Alex Hales. In the elite list with 200, David Warner is third, Babar Azam of Pakistan with 196 while legend of West Indies Chris Gayle was a part of 191 50-plus stands.
Batters who are involved in most 50-plus stands in Men’s T20s
211 – Virat Kohli*
210 – Alex Hales
200 – David Warner
196 – Babar Azam
191 – Chris Gayle
During the match between RCB vs SRH on Friday, Ishan Kishan (79) top-scored as SRH posted 255 for four versus RCB in their Indian Premier League match.
Sunrisers Hyderabad were also well served by half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma (56) and Heinrich Klaasen (51).
For the third wicket, Kishan and Klaasen put on 113 runs in what turned out to be a successful outing for the SRH batters.
For the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rasikh Salam Dar was pick among the bowlers taking 2/52.
During the innings break, Heinrich Klaasen told “Yeah, it was a lovely innings. Struggled there in the first couple of balls, but that one over (27 runs off Hazlewood) just got me back on track. (Your score was 5 after 9 balls and then you took off. What suddenly made you do that?) 5 from 12 is a little bit under pressure in this format (laughs). The team is going at 11-12, so I had to catch up very quickly. So it’s either get out or catch up with the rate. Yeah, I felt the wicket was a little bit slow, So I just struggled to find that timing and I think I might have looked for too many up front and then once I found my balance, it was a little bit easier. (Does help with Ishan Kishan being in full flow?) Yeah, and obviously it will help very much if you dovetail in your partnership.I think we have done that incredibly well this season in the middle order. (Pitch will slow up a bit more as the game progresses?) I would hope so (laughs).”
“I can’t see that it will get any better. History tells that it might slow up a little bit more. (The fact that you are already in the playoffs made you play freely, at least the top order?) Yeah, it is a game that you can really try something if you really need to. That’s why after a couple of balls I pulled the trigger (smiles). But it is a nice game to play and you never know what can happen. If you want an incredible score and it might make them a little bit nervous, couple of early wickets, you never know what can happen,”
