Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26: Unfamiliar silence greets a familiar Kohli masterclass

Rare is the occurrence when Virat Kohli has only handful to cheer for him. Sparsely populated stadia and near-empty grounds do not exist in his world.

But on Wednesday, the BCCI Centre of Excellence was eerily silent, with Kohli’s match-winning Vijay Hazare Trophy hundred against Andhra (131, 101b, 14×4, 3×6) – his first List A century in domestic cricket in nearly 17 years – only eliciting a few claps and hoots.

The closed-door nature of the contest and the fact that it was miles away from the city ensured that there were just a few dozen fans who had assembled around the fortified periphery of the field.

And the police force, which was tasked with preventing any untoward incident, chased them away from time to time like how one would get rid of flies scurrying around a fruit bowl.

A daring supporter who had climbed atop a nearby truck for a clear view of the action was also quickly disembarked and the vehicle asked to move on.

But the outsiders’ loss was the insiders’ gain as ball kids, grounds people and a bunch of Andhra cricketers had a rare rendezvous with Kohli.

“As a player, you cannot think of playing with Virat Kohli or as his opponent. So it was a like a dream, for all domestic cricketers and our team boys also,” conceded Ricky Bhui, who was Andhra’s centurion on the day (122, 105b, 11×4, 7×6). “For me to get a hundred in this match was pretty special.”

Published on Dec 24, 2025