The Royal Challengers Bengaluru played a strong all-around game to defeat the Gujarat Titans by 92 runs and clinch their spot in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 final at Dharamshala’s Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium on Tuesday.
With this triumph, the defending champions qualified for their second straight IPL final.
Gujarat Titans never recovered from losing wickets on a regular basis after setting a huge goal of 255. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam Dar, and Krunal Pandya each claimed two wickets, while pacer Jacob Duffy led the bowling assault brilliantly with three crucial scalps.
Gujarat began well, with Jacob Duffy being attacked by Sai Sudharsan in the third over. But, in a bizarre occurrence, Sudharsan’s bat fell out of his grip as he attempted to strike, and it flew back onto the stumps, ending his innings for 14 runs in nine balls.
Shubman Gill, the skipper of Gujarat, was then dismissed for only two runs by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Josh Hazlewood responded right away by cleaning up the dangerous batter after Jos Buttler attempted to counterattack and slammed boundaries and sixes at him. Only 11 balls were required for Buttler to score a rapid 29 runs.
When Rasikh Salam Dar eliminated Nishant Sandhu and Jason Holder in the same over, RCB increased their hold in the last over of the Power-play. Gujarat ended the Power-play with a score of 51/5 while pursuing the massive goal.
Duffy dismissed Sundar for eight runs after Washington Sundar and Rahul Tewatia attempted to restart the innings. Shortly after, the New Zealand pacer struck again by knocking out Rashid Khan, dropping Gujarat to 87/7 in 11 overs. Kagiso Rabada was caught by Virat Kohli at long-on, which made things worse for Gujarat.
Rahul Tewatia of the Gujarat Titans battled alone as the game seemed to be slipping away. The left-handed batter scored a 33-ball half-century, which was an exciting innings. Prior to Bhuvneshwar’s slower ball dismissing him, he had scored 68 runs off 43 balls, including eight fours and four sixes.
The Gujarat Titans were bowled out in 19. 3 overs with 162 runs, and Krunal Pandya completed the innings by capturing the final wicket.
Earlier, Skipper Rajat Patidar‘s undefeated 93 had helped RCB set a record score of 254/5. With stats of 3/39, Jacob Duffy was Bengaluru’s top bowler.
RCB got off to a good start after losing the toss and being asked to bat first, with Venkatesh Iyer hitting 19 runs off just seven balls, including three fours and a six, before being dismissed by Kagiso Rabada.
Following that, Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli maintained their assault. As RCB achieved their highest powerplay score of the season, 76/1, Kohli made several elegant strokes while Padikkal consistently hit boundaries.
With two fast wickets, Jason Holder helped the Gujarat Titans get back into the game. Padikkal left with 30 runs off 19 deliveries, and Kohli was bowled for 43 runs off 25 balls.
Krunal and Patidar Before making a spectacular counterattack in the middle overs, Pandya rebuilt the innings. Krunal scored 43 runs off 28 deliveries with five fours and two sixes.
Gujarat fielders dropped Patidar twice, and he made them pay a heavy price. In just 21 balls, he scored a half-century after taking on every bowler.
Additionally, Gujarat had trouble on the field, giving up additional runs with misfields and no-balls.
Patidar maintained his superb striking right up to the finish, finishing undefeated on 93 off just 39 balls with five fours and nine sixes. Jitesh Sharma scored 15 runs towards the end of the innings.
The highest score ever in IPL playoff history was 254/5 for RCB.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 254/5 in 20 overs (Rajat Patidar 93, Virat Kohli 43, Krunal Pandya 43; Jason Holder 2-39, Kagiso Rabada 2-54)
Gujarat Titans 162 all out in 19.3 overs (Rahul Tewatia 68, Jos Buttler 29; Jacob Duffy 3-39, Krunal Pandya 2-16, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2-28)