Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has created history by becoming IPL champion for the second consecutive time. RCB, which was yearning for the trophy for 17 years, has made a place in the club of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) by winning back to back titles. In the final match played in Ahmedabad on Sunday (31 May), RCB defeated Gujarat Titans (GT) to capture the IPL 2026 trophy. The hero of this one-sided victory of RCB was Virat Kohli, with the help of whose half-century innings, the team easily achieved the target of 156 runs by losing 5 wickets in 18 overs.
Kohli’s bat roared in the final
Kohli and Venkatesh Iyer gave a good start to RCB in the run chase. Both of them took RCB beyond 50 in just 3.3 overs. This was the fastest half-century of any team in the history of IPL final. Venkatesh was out after playing an impactful innings of 32 runs in 16 balls. After his departure, Devdutt Padikkal (1), Rajat Patidar (15) and Krunal Pandya (1) departed cheaply but Kohli continued to hold the lead from one end. He completed fifty in 25 balls. This was the fastest fifty of his IPL career. Kohli stood firm even after scoring his half-century and did not give GT any chance to make a comeback.
Also read: For the first time in 19 years… Virat Kohli created history by hitting fifty in 25 balls.
Kohli, along with Tim David (24), took RCB closer to victory and then finished the match in style by hitting fours and sixes on consecutive balls. He remained unbeaten after scoring 75 runs in 42 balls, which included 9 fours and 3 sixes. Jitesh Sharma returned unbeaten after scoring 11 runs in 14 balls. Rashid Khan took 2 wickets for GT. Mohammad Siraj, Kagiso Rabada and Arshad Khan got one success each.
Also read: RCB accused of foul play in IPL final, Patidar clashed with umpire after being caught stealing
Gill-Sudarshan failed
After losing the toss and opting to bat first, GT had a very poor start. He lost the wickets of both his openers Shubhman Gill (10) and Sai Sudarshan (12) within 4 overs. Both Gill and Sudarshan had scored more than 700 runs in the current season and GT’s success largely depended on them. But they failed together in the finals, due to which GT could not reach a big score. Washington Sundar played an unbeaten inning of 50 runs in 37 balls to take the host team to a fighting score but it proved to be insufficient. Rasikh Salam Dar took maximum 3 wickets for RCB. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood took 2-2 wickets. Krunal Pandya had 1 wicket in his account.
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