IPL 2026 Final, RCB vs GT : Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) make history, successfully defending their Indian Premier League (IPL) title, getting their overall second title with the support of half-century from star batter Virat Kohli, beating a valiant Gujarat Titans by five wickets at Narendra Modi Stadium of Ahmedabad on Sunday.
Batting first by GT, they scored just 155/8 in 20 overs, with help of Washington Sundar (50* in 37 balls, with five fours) and Nishant Sindhu (20 in 18 balls, with three fours) being the only one to cross the 20-run mark. Rasikh Dar Salam (3/27), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/29) and Josh Hazlewood (2/37) taken the wickets regularly.
With a 62-run stand between Venkatesh Iyer (32 in 16 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) and Virat Kohli, RCB started off well. At one point, GT displayed some fight, reducing RCB to 132/5, but with two overs left, Virat Kohli (75* in 42 balls, with nine fours and three sixes) guided RCB to a win.
Overall, this is RCB’s fourth Indian franchise cricket trophy and second IPL title win, including two Women’s Premier League (WPL) titles.
Virat Kohli tells ‘ It’s stuff that you dream of,’
“It’s stuff that you dream of. Thought of this moment many times, to win the IPL and stand here. The kind of team you gives you the confidence to see off any kind of situation. Such is the demand of the sport today. You have these young players pushing you hard and asking you to get better. You need to get those 20-30 runs extra. I had to change my mindset, not so much by game, to get those runs. The target was to finish top of the table. A lot of people asked who we would prefer to play in the play. But we didn’t care of the jersey in front of us. We are a professional group. They probably looked to get me out early but I had the confidence that even if I get out there is enough depth in the side to pull it off. There was total clarity and both of us wanted to strike. We had small targets in mind. Credit to Venkatesh as well. Stepped in and did a beautiful job. I always say that we don’t have just 7 home games we have 14. GT are the home team.”
