Royal Challengers Bengaluru 254 for 5 (Patidar 93*, Kohli 43, Krunal 43, Holder 2-39, Rabada 2-54) beat Gujarat Titans 162 (Tewatia 68, Duffy 3-39, Krunal 2-16, Salam 2-24, Bhuvneshwar 2-28) by 92 runs
Rajat Patidar led defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) into the IPL 2026 final with the quickest innings of 90 or more in the IPL, scoring a delightful unbeaten 93 off 33 to take his team to 254 for 5, the highest total in an IPL playoffs match, against the best attack of the tournament, Gujarat Titans (GT).
Having finished in the top two, GT still have a chance to make the final at their home ground in Ahmedabad in Qualifier 2 as they await the winner of the Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals (RR). But the last eight IPLs have been won by the side winning this fixture: Qualifier 1.
Asked to bat first in chase-friendly Dharamsala, RCB came out full of intent and skill despite missing the injured Phil Salt, but GT nearly snuck back in with a period of 22 balls, 18 runs and two wickets of set batters in a single Jason Holder over. In the time that Patidar scored 93 off 33, the other end, including extras, produced 68 off 37 legal deliveries.
Having never scored more than 233, GT needed something special, and only Jos Buttler came close to that with 29 off 11. The RCB fast bowlers ran riot and took out half the side within the powerplay.
No Salt, no problem
RCB would have dearly loved to have Salt back, but his absence allowed them to play Jacob Duffy as the fourth overseas player. Venkatesh Iyer started the innings with two fours off the first two balls, moving around in the crease to try to mess with the lengths of the GT fast bowlers. It took Virat Kohli four balls to lay bat on Kagiso Rabada's hard lengths, but Venkatesh ramped him for a six first ball even though he got into a tangle.
Even though Rabada came back immediately with the wicket of Venkatesh, the makeshift opener had done his job with 19 off seven. Immediately after the wicket, Kohli charged at Mohammed Siraj and drove him over mid-off. Some classic batting - a flick off the hip, a late cut and a square cut - from Devdutt Padikkal consigned Rabada to 18 in his second over and brought up the team fifty in just four overs.
Rattled, GT had to move away from bowling Siraj and Rabada through the powerplay for the first time in eight matches.
Ambati Rayudu on why it was the wrong decision for GT to chase
The GT comeback
Holder and Rashid Khan combined to bring GT back into the contest. Holder kept hitting the hard lengths, and Rashid bowled his first two overs for no boundary. In between, Holder removed Kohli and Padikkal for 43 off 25 and 30 off 19. Not big innings but ones that understood the assignment.
The Patidar blinder
Having gone funky with their selection - no Romario Shepherd in the batting-first XI so they could play an extra bowler if Shepherd was not needed - RCB promoted Krunal Pandya to likely maintain ideal points of entry for Tim David and Jitesh Sharma. While Krunal did his job with 43 off 28, it was the other batter that led to dropping jaws.
Patidar broke the spell off 22 quiet balls with a pulled six off a Holder ball that wasn't quite short enough. After a boundary-free first over from Kulwant Khejroliya, playing his first game of T20 cricket since last April, Prasidh Krishna created two opportunities in the 14th over. The first one, a leading edge, fell between the converging wicketkeeper and deep third. The second one went straight to Rabada at deep square leg but was dropped with Patidar on 20 off 12. At the end of the 14th over, RCB were 140 for 3, the last time you could say the match was even.
Starting with no-balls from Khejroliya in the 15th over, the floodgates opened for 114 runs in the last six overs. Two of his nine sixes were bona fide highlights reels for the year. The first an extra-cover drive off Rashid from the crease, and then a back-foot drive over cover off Rabada, who by now had the Purple Cap. That shot off Rabada left even Kohli awestruck.
The GT bowlers didn't quite try a quick bouncer at him, but Patidar nicely steered a slow bouncer over short fine with a delayed hook. At one point, even a century seemed likely, but he didn't quite get enough strike.
Ambati Rayudu and Tom Moody on the franchise's recent success
The GT collapse
For the first time ever, both innings of an IPL match started with two fours as B Sai Sudharsan hit Duffy for fours, but the GT openers were not as successful as the RCB top order at upsetting the bowlers' lengths. Both Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan tried charging at Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but got only two runs from his first over.
The pressure was mounting, but the first wicket came in an unconventional manner, with Sai Sudharsan losing his bat as he cut Duffy away for four. The bat ricocheted onto the leg stump before the ball could reach the fence. Bhuvneshwar then extended his dominance over Gill with a wobble-seam delivery that got his leg stump. Now Bhuvneshwar leads the head-to-head with six wickets in 79 balls for just 80 runs.
No option left, Buttler came out swinging, looked dangerous, but Josh Hazlewood got the better of him with a knuckle-ball legcutter. The rest was always going to be a formality but RCB carried it out in style.
Rasikh Salam bowled a double-wicket maiden to get Nishant Sindhu and Holder to leave GT five down within the powerplay. Duffy ended with three wickets, Bhuvneshwar reclaimed the Purple Cap, and only some late damage control from Rahul Tewatia prevented this from becoming the biggest defeat in an IPL playoff match.
