Royal Challengers Bengaluru Reach IPL 2026 Final After Dominating Gujarat Titans

Dharamshala. Royal Challengers Bengaluru has reached the IPL final for the second consecutive season. The team defeated Gujarat Titans by 92 runs in Qualifier-1 on Tuesday.

Now Gujarat will play Qualifier-2 against the team that wins the 'Eliminator' match. The 'Eliminator' match will be played between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday in New Chandigarh.

Batting after losing the toss in Dharamshala, Bengaluru scored 254 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs. In reply, Gujarat's team was all out for 162 in 19.3 overs.

Venkatesh Iyer gave Bengaluru an excellent start by scoring 19 runs in 7 balls. After that, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal handled the innings. Kohli scored 43 off 25 balls and Padikkal scored 30 off 19 balls.

After both got out, captain Rajat Patidar smashed an unbeaten 93 off 33 balls. His innings included 5 fours and 9 sixes. A partnership of 95 runs was formed between Patidar and Krunal Pandya for the fourth wicket. Krunal scored 43 off 28 balls. He hit 5 fours and 2 sixes.

In the final overs, Jitesh Sharma took the team past the 250 mark with 15 runs in 5 balls. For Gujarat, Kagiso Rabada and Jason Holder took 2 wickets each.

Gujarat's start was very poor while chasing the target of 255. Sai Sudharsan got out 'hit-wicket' after scoring 14 runs, while captain Shubman Gill could only score 2 runs. Jos Buttler's 29 off 11 balls raised hopes, but Josh Hazlewood bowled him. After that, Gujarat lost its 5 wickets for 51 runs.

Rahul Tewatia, fighting alone from one end, played a 68-run innings off 43 balls, which included 8 fours and 4 sixes. For Bengaluru, Duffy took 3 wickets, while Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar, and Rasikh Salam took 2 wickets each.

Bengaluru's score was historic, and the team's captain also broke records by scoring an unbeaten 93 off 33 balls:

• 254/5: This is the highest score ever made by any team in an 'IPL' playoff or knockout match, scored by Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Gujarat Titans in Dharamshala. Three years ago, Gujarat itself had scored 233/3 against Mumbai Indians in 'Qualifier-2'.

This is the fifth time any team has scored 250 or more runs in a T-20 cricket playoff or knockout match, with four of them being made in India in the last six months.

• 4: This is the fourth time Bengaluru has scored 250 or more runs in the IPL. This is the second highest after Sunrisers Hyderabad. Hyderabad has done this 6 times.

On the other hand, this is the first time Gujarat has conceded more than 250 runs in a single innings. Earlier, they had conceded 247 runs for the loss of 2 wickets against Kolkata Knight Riders ten days ago.

• 114: Bengaluru scored 114 runs in the last six overs of their innings, which is the second highest total scored by any team in an IPL innings. This record is also held by Bengaluru, who scored 126 runs in the last six overs against Gujarat Lions in 2016.
• 9: This is the ninth time Bengaluru has scored over 200 runs in IPL 2026. This is jointly the highest in any T-20 tournament. Hyderabad and Punjab Kings have also done this 9 times in this edition.
• 281.81: Rajat Patidar's batting strike rate was 281.81 while scoring an unbeaten 93 off 33 balls, which is the highest strike rate for a captain scoring more than fifty runs in the IPL. Earlier in 2024, Faf du Plessis had a strike rate of 278.26 for Bengaluru against Gujarat, scoring 64 off 23 balls.
• 0: In the IPL, there are zero batsmen who have scored more than Patidar's 93* runs (281.81 strike rate) and scored at a higher strike rate in a single innings. Vaibhav Suryavanshi's strike rate of 278.37 when he scored 103 off 37 balls against Gujarat last year is the second highest for such a high score.

In Patidar's innings, there was only one 'dot ball' off Prasidh Krishna's ball in the 12th over, from which Bengaluru still got runs through a 'bye'.

• 93*: Patidar's score against Gujarat is also the joint highest score by any captain in an IPL playoff (or knockout) match. In the 2016 'Qualifier-2', David Warner had also scored an unbeaten 93 for Hyderabad against Gujarat Lions.
• 9: In his unbeaten 93-run innings, Patidar hit 9 sixes, which is the second highest number of sixes hit by any batter in an IPL playoff (or knockout) match. Shubman Gill had hit 10 sixes while scoring 129 against Mumbai in 2023.

Patidar hit eight sixes in the last six overs of the innings alone. He scored 21 runs in the first 13 balls and added 72 runs in the next 20 balls.

• 18: Kagiso Rabada has taken 18 wickets in the 'powerplay' overs of IPL 2026, which is the highest number of wickets taken by any bowler in a single edition of the 'IPL'. He surpassed the record of 17 wickets taken by Mohammed Shami while playing for Gujarat itself in 2023.

On the other hand, Rabada has conceded a total of 35 sixes in all phases of this IPL, which is the highest number of sixes conceded by any bowler in a single edition. He has surpassed the record of 34 sixes conceded by Anshul Kamboj in this 2026 edition.