Back in the year 2013, when former team India and RCB captain Virat Kohli was yet to establish his name as one of the best batters in modern-day Cricket, a dropped catch had become the reason for his team’s downfall during an IPL match against the Kings XI Punjab in Mohali.
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Having set a challenging target of 191 runs after scoring the fifth-highest score of IPL 2013 till that point, the RCB bowlers had reduced the Kings‘ scorecard to 64 for 4 by the tenth Over of the chase. David Miller, however, had managed to stitch a crucial partnership alongside Rajagopal Satish and had to play a special knock to take his side home.
With him batting on 41 (21), he top-edged a delivery bowled by Vinay Kumar high into the night sky. Stationed at extra cover, skipper Kohli had positioned himself well to take a reverse cup catch, but the ball went through his palms and hit his face resulting in a dropped catch.
Miller goes berserk; makes Kohli pay for the dropped catch
Post the drop, Miller had as if decided to activate his beast mode on and smashed 27 runs off the next Over (16th) bowled by RP Singh.
He began smashing bowlers for fun, and reached his maiden IPL century off mere 38 deliveries. The left-hander, along with Satish smashed 99 runs during the last five Overs of the chase, as the target was achieved with two Overs to spare.
Virat Kohli’s dropped catch helped David Miller score maiden IPL century in 2013
During an interaction with Adam Gilchrist for the ‘Fox Sports‘ five years later, Kohli was asked whether he still remembered what had happened during the above mentioned match, which led to a David Miller onslaught.
Recollecting the memory with a chuckle, Kohli remarked, “Yes I do! You guys were struggling badly, and I ended up dropping him (Miller) and then he got a 38-ball hundred. I hated every ball of that innings. I was just watching in disbelief. He just went on a roll and and there was no looking back. I think you guys won with more than an Over to spare from there and it was just shocking. I had nightmares of that for a while.”
For those unaware, Gilchrist was also part of the Kings XI Punjab squad during IPL 2013, which also happened to be his last season as an IPL player. However, he was not part of the team’s playing XI in that particular match.
