defending champion Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) M.Chinnaswamy continued his excellent form this season with a five-wicket win over Gujarat Titans (GT) in their last group stage match in Match 34 of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL).
After winning the toss and inviting GT to bat, the visiting team made a great start to their innings and scored 205 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. Sai Sudarshan was the star, registering his first century of this season's IPL. The 2022 champions lost their way a bit, but a late strike from Jason Holder took them to a respectable total.
In reply, RCB achieved the target with five wickets in hand and seven balls to spare. The credit for this victory mainly went to the 115-run partnership between Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli for the second wicket, which took the game away from their grip. GT. The pair performed brilliantly on their home ground, scoring 55 and 81 runs respectively. Despite losing a few wickets in the middle order, Royal Challengers crossed the line thanks to a late flourish from Krunal Pandya.
important moments of the match
1. Sai Sudarshan scored a quick century
Before the game against RCB, Sai Sudarshan had scored above 50 only once and he averaged only 22.50. However, the left-handed batsman returned to form with a century off just 57 balls, an innings that included 11 fours and five sixes. This was the 24-year-old player's third century in his IPL career. However, Sudarshan could not take advantage of his century and was out on the very next ball to Josh Hazlewood.
2. Virat Kohli made the audience happy after getting life support
It is very rare that Virat Kohli presents an opportunity to take his wicket in the very first over of the match. However, GT was provided exactly that during Mohammed Siraj's over when Kohli bowled the ball straight towards Washington Sundar, who was positioned at mid-wicket. However, the all-rounder was unsteady and missed an easy chance. The right-handed batsman took full advantage of this lease of life and scored 81 runs in 44 balls, and also shared a 115-run partnership with Devdutt Padikkal for the second wicket. He was later declared player of the match for his brilliant innings.
3. Late Krunal Pandya-Tim David show took RCB home
After the brilliant partnership between Padikkal and Kohli ended, RCB went a bit astray and lost four wickets in the space of just 32 runs. However, the pair of Krunal Pandya and Tim David ensured that there were no further problems and achieved the target in the 19th over. David scored 10 runs while Pandya scored 23 runs in 12 balls to help his team get two points.
Get every cricket update! Follow us: :
Leave a Reply