Virat Kohli wasn't ready to celebrate yet, even though Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) needed just ten more runs to win the IPL 2026 title. Everyone else at the stadium was convinced back-to-back titles were in the bag, but Kohli kept pumping himself.
The big screen added to the atmosphere. Arshad Khan was midway through the 16th over when images from RCB's title-winning journey in 2025 began flashing on it. In a jiffy, a crowd of more than 90,000 merged into a deafening chorus of "Aar-cee-bee, Aar-cee-bee". Kohli didn't flinch. Not even when the other familiar soundtrack of "Kohli, Kohli" rang around the stadium.
Two balls later, there was confusion, perhaps a touch of anxiety too when he lofted a length ball to a diving Shubman Gill at mid-off. No one knew if he ball had carried, not Gill, and definitely not umpire Nitin Menon. And so the third umpire was summoned. After what seemed like an eternity, when the verdict came back as "not out", the roar that came from the stands was even louder than the one before it.
Kohli punched the air, glanced briefly towards the sky, and immediately had a quiet word with Jitesh Sharma, his batting partner. There were still nine runs to get. Kohli perhaps knew he was nearly there, despite the leg injury, but there was still the burning desire to finish things off and not leave it for the batter to follow.
"It's stuff that you dream of," Kohli said on the broadcast after the game, revealing why he was so consumed by that moment, unwilling to let the feeling overcome him even though RCB were just a handful of runs away. "I've thought of this moment many times... that once when we win the IPL, I should be standing there hitting the winning runs. Tonight, it was possible."
Kohli signed off with a six. The sense of purpose that had helped deliver his fastest IPL fifty, in his 19th season, had driven him right until that very moment. That game face was on long before RCB took the field, when he dropped to one knee in the middle of the team huddle and delivered an animated message. Nobody outside that circle knows what was said, but the intensity of his actions left little room for ambiguity.
Not many men on the field on Sunday night might have known about the fragility of IPL finals quite like Kohli. He had experienced the heartbreaks of 2009 and 2011 as a youngster and the agony of 2016, by which time he was already RCB's central figure. Arguably the greatest season of his batting career wasn't enough to ensure crowning glory then.
While last year's title had finally brought glory, opportunities like the ones on Sunday night weren't guaranteed. Which is why the "stuff of dreams" offered a glimpse into the fire that still burns. Perhaps that explains why he was keyed up to be everywhere throughout the evening - not unusual for Kohli.
When wickets fell, he celebrated with his typical fist-pumping energy, never more vociferous than when Gill was dismissed early. He constantly urged the fast bowlers to hit the deck hard, a tactical point Dinesh Karthik revealed had been part of RCB's planning after assessing the surface. Whether it was field placements, encouragement, celebrations or conversations with team-mates, Kohli was at the centre of every camera frame.
At the best of times, Kohli can be that intense. On Sunday night, with 90,000-plus people singing and dancing to his tunes, you wondered which really was the home team; his presence felt that larger-than-life. Like he often does, he gave the crowd energy and somehow managed to extract even more of it in exchange. This is perhaps why empty-stadium cricket never quite suited him. And he fed off that energy during RCB's chase.
The innings itself was Kohli 2.0 all the way. He was off the blocks in the powerplay, seemingly intent on taking down Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada. A gorgeous whip off Rabada that sent the ball soaring for six over the midwicket boundary in the fourth over hit the high notes in an over where every other shot seemed equally good.
Kohli quickly recognised that the surface wasn't a featherbed. This pitch was slower, and several deliveries were holding in the surface. Realising the importance of maximising the powerplay, he relayed a message over to his opening partner, Venkatesh Iyer, and it was loud and clear.
"I just told him one thing: we need to kill the game in the powerplay," Kohli said of the brief conversation they had. "And he said, 'yeah, let's go'. There was total clarity."
There may have been a time, perhaps even until a couple of years ago, when Kohli would have approached the middling chase of 156 differently. But over the past two seasons, he has spoken repeatedly about the need to evolve alongside the younger generation.
"You see these super young players pushing you all the time and really asking you to change your game and up the ante," Kohli said. "It's an exciting situation because it gives you something to improve on, something to work towards."
And those adjustments were as much mental as they were technical: "It was just the demands of today's modern game where you need to get those 20-30 extra runs. I had to kind of change my mindset, not my game so much, but more often take the bowlers on, probably the best bowlers in the opposition. That was always my target."
On a two-paced surface, allowing the contest to drift could boomerang badly. So, RCB's answer was to stay ahead of the game. Irrespective of which version of Kohli turns up for run chases, that underlying belief has been a constant. He had no interest in taking the game deep.
Reading situations, understanding pressure and maintaining control of a contest have always been among his greatest strengths. It wasn't until a flat-batted pull reduced the equation to just one run needed did the result feel inevitable to him. It was only after the ball disappeared into the stands for the winning runs did the tension finally leave him. The intensity that had defined his evening dimmed, his smile widened and his team-mates streamed onto the field.
Having had some time to reflect, Kohli said afterwards, while collecting the Player-of-the-Match award, that RCB's title defence had been built on something much larger than one individual. "Even tonight, I was very confident that even if I got out early, we have a champion team that's going to finish the job."
This was a striking comment from a player who spent much of his IPL career carrying the burden of the batting line-up alongside AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle. But this version of RCB, assembled by Andy Flower, Mo Bobat and Karthik had convinced him that the team's strength extended well beyond its biggest star.
"When you have that kind of confidence, you can go out there and really take the bowlers on," Kohli said. "That's credit to the management, the way they stacked up the squad, the talent of the players, the belief that the players have shown. That's why we stand here as champions back-to-back."
For much of the evening, Kohli didn't want to give time to the dream until it became reality. The huddle before the game, the urgency on the field, the constant involvement in the chase, and the refusal to celebrate before the job was done all pointed in the same direction. Eventually, he got the ending he had imagined for years.
A six over long-on to finish the game and seal the trophy for his team. He had seen that before. That night, 15 years ago, he had delivered an iconic line as an ode to Sachin Tendulkar. After 19 seasons of carrying RCB through its highest highs and lowest lows, Kohli might have truly understood what Tendulkar had felt that night in Mumbai.