IPL 2026: RCB became champion for the second consecutive time, defeated GT in the final, Kohli-Rashish were the heroes of the victory.

Ahmedabad. Royal Challengers Bangalore won the title by defeating Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2026 final. Bengaluru became IPL champion for the second consecutive time. In the match played in Ahmedabad, RCB bowlers first restricted Gujarat to 155 runs. After this the team achieved the target and won the trophy. Virat Kohli and Rasikh Salam emerged as the biggest heroes of the victory.

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) created history by winning the IPL 2026 title on Sunday (31 May). RCB defeated Gujarat team by 5 wickets with 12 balls remaining. This was Bengaluru’s second back to back IPL trophy. With this win, she joined the club of Mumbai (2019, 2020) and Chennai (2010, 2011), which won the IPL title twice consecutively. Keep in mind that the title of IPL 2025 was won by Royal Challengers Bangalore, which was its first title.

In the final match played at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, RCB’s fast bowlers performed brilliantly, especially Rasik Salam Dar, who took 3 wickets. After this, chase master Virat Kohli played a brilliant inning of 75 runs in 42 balls. The special thing was that Kohli gave the title to his team by hitting a six. He remained not out till the end.

RCB team made a strong start in the run chase of 156. Venkatesh Iyer was caught by Rabada on the ball of Siraj after scoring 32 runs in 16 balls. After this, Devdutt Padikkal was out after scoring just 1 run on the ball of Kagiso Rabada, this was Rabada’s 29th wicket of this IPL. RCB’s third wicket fell at 89 runs in the form of Rajat Patidar (15), he was dismissed by Rashid Khan in his first over. After this, in the same over, he gave the fourth blow to RCB by dismissing Krunal Pandya. In this way the match became exciting.

However, Virat Kohli remained on one side and scored fifty in 25 balls. Which was his fastest IPL fifty. When RCB team was close to the target, Tim David (24) became the victim of Arshad Khan. With David out, RCB’s score became 132/5. However, after this, Jitesh Sharma (11 not out) and Virat Kohli (75 not out) returned to the dugout only after leading their team to victory. Rashid Khan was the most successful bowler from Gujarat, he took 2 wickets.

Kohli’s fastest 50 in IPL (according to balls)

25 vs GT, Ahmedabad, 2026
26 vs RR, Bengaluru, 2018
26 vs DC, Delhi, 2018
27 vs LSG, Lucknow, 2025

Fastest 50 in IPL final (by balls)

24 – Suresh Raina (CSK) vs MI, Mumbai DYP, 2010
24 – David Warner (SRH) vs RCB, Bengaluru, 2016
24 – Venkatesh Iyer (KKR) vs SRH, Chennai, 2024
25 – Rohit Sharma (MI) vs CSK, Kolkata, 2015
25 – Chris Gayle (RCB) vs SRH, Bengaluru, 2016
25 – Virat Kohli (RCB) vs GT, Ahmedabad, 2026

RCB’s pace battery shines under the leadership of Rasik Salam Dar

Gujarat team came out to bat first in the IPL final. For Gujarat, only Washington Sundar (50 not out) batted steadily. Gujarat had a very bad start and their first blow came in the form of captain Shubman Gill (10) on 22 runs, Gill was caught by Rajat Patidar on the ball of Josh Hazlewood. Sai Sudarshan (12) was also out on the ball of Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the score of 26 runs.

Nishant Sindhu, who came after this, was playing ticker, but he too was caught by Devdutt Padikkal on the ball of Rasik Salam Dar at the score of 20 runs. With Sindhu out, Gujarat’s score became 55/3. Gujarat’s fourth wicket fell in the form of Jos Buttler (19), then Gujarat’s score was 73. However, Gujarat’s condition in this match was on the lines of ‘you came, I came’. The fifth wicket was of Arshad Khan, who was out after slogging batting of 15 runs in 6 balls. With Arshad out, Gujarat’s score became 99/5. After this, Rahul Tewatia also left after scoring 7 runs. Which was the sixth wicket of Gujarat team. The seventh wicket was of Jason Holder, who became the victim of Bhuvneshwar Kumar after scoring 7 runs. In this way Bhuvneshwar completed his 28 wickets in IPL. The last batsman to be dismissed from Gujarat was Rashid Khan, he scored 7.

RCB ahead in head-to-head

So far 10 matches have been played between the two teams, out of which RCB has won six and Gujarat has won four. Now RCB’s record in Ahmedabad is ahead by 2-1. An interesting statistic is that out of 10 matches played between the two teams, 9 matches have been won by the team chasing the target. Qualifier-1 was the only match of this season, where the team batting first became the winner.