The celebration of his ninth IPL hundred itself was subdued - just a raise of the bat and an acknowledgement towards the dressing room, without even removing his helmet - because Virat Kohli knew the job was not done yet. But there were two moments during the chase that perhaps captured the evening better. The first came right at the start, when he finally got off the mark after two consecutive ducks. Kohli punched the air with a little fist bump, which was more relief than anything else. The second arrived on 98, when he whipped Kartik Tyagi over deep midwicket with those trademark wrists and broke into a brief little dance, allowing himself to enjoy the shot.

Coming into the game against Kolkata Knight Riders, the scrutiny around Kohli had not really been about form as much as output. He had looked fluent enough through the season but had fallen cheaply in successive outings, something that clearly lingered with him. Kohli got going against Vaibhav Arora, striking four boundaries in the second over. There was the checked punch through midwicket, the flick over square leg and the effortless slash over the off side, all trademark Kohli strokes played with the certainty of someone determined to reassert control quickly.

The innings could still have ended early. On 21, Kohli drilled Kartik Tyagi hard towards cover where Rovman Powell put down a difficult chance that burst through his hands. KKR, who had been one of the sharper fielding sides in the competition before this game, never recovered from that moment. Kohli settled deeper into the chase thereafter, and once he crossed the Powerplay, the innings adjusted into a familiar rhythm.

His fifty came off 32 balls, but perhaps more revealing was how he built the innings after that point. The hundred eventually arrived 28 deliveries later, yet the acceleration never felt frantic. There was no sustained assault against a particular bowler, no sequence of desperate boundary-hunting. Instead, Kohli manipulated the chase through placement and movement.

Of his 105 runs, only 62 came in boundaries while the remaining 43 came through relentless strike rotation, pushes into gaps and hard-run twos that ensured the asking rate never became a conversation. Kohli repeatedly called for the quick runs, challenged fielders and kept turning strike over even as the milestone approached. The chase was paced almost like an ODI innings compressed into T20 tempo: stabilise after the early wicket, absorb the middle overs without stagnating, and gradually close the game before the finish became stressful.

Padikkal later revealed that the pair had spoken about stretching the partnership deep into the chase rather than chasing quick finishes. "I think we didn't really go into the specifics of anchoring. It was just more about making sure that we took the game to a certain stage where we felt that the rest of our batting lineup will be in a comfortable position. I think over the last couple of games we have been in a situation where we have lost a couple of wickets early and then we have never stitched those partnerships together. I think it was important today that once I went in, both of us spoke about just elongating that partnership as long as possible and then taking it from there."

That understanding was visible through the middle overs. Kohli remained the tempo-setter while Padikkal supplied fluency against spin and pace alike. Together, they added 92 runs for the second wicket and the stand never quite allowed KKR an opening. Even during quieter overs against Sunil Narine, Kohli kept nudging singles and twos, refusing to let pressure accumulate. Then came the bursts of acceleration: the wristy pull off Narine, timing one cleanly down the ground against Anukul Roy, and the remarkable whip over deep midwicket off Tyagi.

Kohli admitted that the pressure of the previous two failures had sharpened him rather than burdened him. "Well, there's a reason why people say pressure is a privilege. It actually keeps you humble, keeps you focused, makes you work hard at practice again. You can't take things for granted. Butterflies in the stomach, good pressure always helps you to improve your game. So I was in the nets working harder. Training harder, you tend to, when you're playing well, you can tend to kind of taper off a little bit with your intensity and focus. But I think a couple of games that don't go your way, you start feeling a bit of nervousness again," he said at the post-match presentation after bagging yet another Player of the Match award.