Following Virat Kohli's crucial knock in the high chase, which helped his side secure a top 2 spot in the points rankings, Dinesh Karthik, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru's batting coach and mentor, lauded him. With a scorching 54 runs from 30 balls, Kohli set the tone for RCB in the 228-run chase against the Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday. The 36-year-old, who is famous for being the anchor during the chase, chose to go all out from the beginning, which put the LSG bowlers under duress.

This season, the batting virtuoso has hit eight half-centuries, scoring 602 runs at an average of 60.20 and maintaining an amazing strike rate of 147.91.

In his 18th IPL season, Kohli is still in the running for the Orange Cap and is now ranked fifth in the league.

Karthik commended Kohli for his consistency throughout the years, which no other batter in the financially lucrative league has been able to match.

The beginning, in my opinion, is that Virat Kohli is a "genius par excellence". He has accumulated 9000 runs during the course of 18 seasons, which is 500 runs per season on average, not average. People were able to achieve that 12-season run. Even though Hayden has managed it a few times more, it is such a difficult request. But for him to consistently produce runs year after year, he needs to have that drive, even during warmups, and feel the way he does, Karthik said.

'Virat Kohli possesses such great zeal and intensity'

Karthik, who is serving as the RCB camp's mentor and hitting coach this year, also spoke about how he works with Kohli in the nets, saying that the way Kohli approaches practice demonstrates his love and fervour for the sport.

"I was simply hitting a few balls to him, the speed at which it comes back in the mid, it tells you the man has got so much passion and intensity with anything he wants to do, and that's such a brilliant attribute for any young boy and girl wanting to play sport, forget cricket, just the passion, the hard work, the dedication, with every minute you spend towards the sport. He is a living illustration of it, he continued.

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