Royal Challengers Bengaluru can pretty much kiss their IPL playoff chances goodbye. Sure, mathematically they are still in. They all are. But having lost six matches out of the first seven, seldom have teams recovered enough to seal a place in the top four. More so when the team is RCB, whose dreadful fortunes don't seem to end. They find themselves in the middle of an abysmal slump. things went from bad to worse last evening when the Sunrisers Hyderabad belted them for 287 runs, thus bettering their own record to register the highest total in IPL history.

Amid all the carnage, Virat Kohli seems stuck. Presently the holder of Orange Cap with 361 runs following a crisp 40 off 22 balls at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Kohli is proving to be the lone warrior of the team even as the franchise continues to nosedive. On Monday, as SRH inflicted carnage on RCB, Kohli – although he didn't bowl – felt the wrath of Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klassen during their onslaught.

During the course of the game, Kohli could be seen going through a range of raw emotions – from kicking the turf to yelling at his teammates – stemming out of pure frustration of watching his bowlers getting carted to all parts of the ground. Kohli's face sported all kinds of looks – pain, disgust, disappointment, sorrow – as RCB, despite coming close – lost the game by 25 runs.

Like always, Kohli made an honest attempt to achieve the impossible. He went boundary-hunting from ball one and managed to give RCB a flying start along with partner Faf du Plessis. They scored 79 runs in the powerplay. Despite that, the asking rate was 15 runs an over. Kohli needed to keep going. He tried to hit leg-spinner Mayank Markande out of the park but lost his shape in trying to do so and ended up missing the ball completely to lose his stumps. He was out for 42 off 20 balls.

Barring never winning an IPL trophy, Kohli remains RCB's only constant in its 16-year-long history. He is the highest run-scorer in IPL history, holds the record for the most centuries and the enjoying the most prolific season by a batter – 973 runs in 2016 – but the joy of becoming an IPL winner has always eluded Kohli. He has enjoyed all the highs and endured several lows the franchise has been through, even captained the team for nine seasons, but failed to take it to the podium. Thrice RCB came close to winning the title, reaching the final in 2009, 2011 and 2016, only to fall short on all three occasions.

Kohli's personal form is a striking contrast to RCB's campaign. Kohli has creamed a century and two fifties to be placed on top of the leading run-scorer list but that's all that there is. The only time Kohli seemed genuinely happy this year was during his post-match video chat with family after RCB defeated Punjab Kings – their only win of the season – but overall has cut a forlorn figure as noticed ample number of times.

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