In what was an anti-climactic end to the 2026 Indian Premier League, Royal Challengers Bengaluru overcame Gujarat Titans to win their second successive title at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday night.
It’s been a high-scoring season, but on the most important day of IPL 2026, GT could only manage 155/8. RCB had no real troubles whatsoever chasing down the target, with Virat Kohli taking the lead with 75 not out. He added 63 with Venkatesh Iyer for the opening stand to set the tone. RCB lost three quick wickets after that, but since there was no real scoreboard pressure, they reached the target on a canter. Kohli scored his fastest IPL fifty to date off 25 balls. What a stage to do it!
Kohli and Tim David (24 off 17 balls) added 41 runs for the fifth wicket to dash whatever little hopes GT may have had after reducing RCB to 91/4 at one point. Kohli hit Arshad Khan for a six to finish off the game with 12 balls to go and five wickets in hand.
With their triumph, RCB became only the third team to win back-to-back titles after Chennai Super Kings (2010 and 2011) and Mumbai Indians (2019 and 2020). Rajat Patidar also became the third captain after MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma to win back-to-back titles.
The bouncing out of GT!
Earlier, RCB bowlers came in with a plan after deciding to bowl first: the plan to bounce out GT’s batsmen. Captain Shubman Gill was the first to fall to a slightly shortish ball from Aussie pacer Josh Hazlewood. Gill wanted to hit it straight back in the fashion of a tennis forehand but ended up skying it, and Patidar ran from mid-off to mid-on to take a simple catch. He scored just 10.
Sai Sudharsan was also a victim of a short-pitched delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The ball got big on Sudharsan, and in two minds, he got a top-edge, and Jitesh Sharma ran back to his right to complete another simple catch. Sudharsan made 12.
Nishant Sindhu coming in, ahead of Jos Buttler, was a big surprise. However, he played some attractive shots before perishing to Rasikh Salam for 20 off 18 balls. It was another short-pitched delivery which Sindhu pounced on, but he failed to clear the deep midwicket boundary.
Butler was the last serious hope for GT, but he became a victim of the brainy Krunal Pandya, who, expecting the Englishman to charge him down the track, bowled it wide, and Buttler, just as Pandya had guessed, came down the track but failed to connect the ball, and Jitesh did the rest behind the wicket. He made 19 off 23 balls.
The GT innings never had any steam, and if not for Washington Sundar’s carefully crafted 50 not out off 37 balls, they wouldn’t have even reached 150. However, it was a score that was never going to challenge the mighty batsmen of RCB. Rasikh was the pick of the RCB bowlers with three wickets. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood took two wickets each.
