Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Gujarat Titans, 34th Match, Indian Premier League 2026 - CommentaryRCB vs GT, 34th Match, Indian Premier League 2026 - Commentary

A clinical display from Royal Challengers Bangalore as they put themselves in a commanding position at the halfway mark of the tournament. Plenty of positives to take from this outing; disciplined bowling at the death, fine knocks from Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal and some late flourish with the bat from Krunal Pandya. They got most things right, though they could have handled Sai Sudharsan better as he powered his way to a century. Even so, RCB will be pleased with a valuable win. This was their final game at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium and they will play their remaining home fixtures at Raipur against Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders. That’s all from us tonight. We will be back tomorrow for a double-header as Delhi Capitals take on Punjab Kings, and Rajasthan Royals face Sunrisers Hyderabad later in the day. Goodbye and good night!

Kohli 2/2: (team playing with so much confidence) "Look, I mean, the body language comes from, a belief that you have in your abilities, and to be honest, we have a tremendous batting lineup. If you look at the talent on display, we have guys who can hit good cricketing shots and hurt bowlers. Then we have the power of Tim David and Romario, and then you have the cricket smarts of Krunal, who can come in under pressure and, play a knock like that and, really understands the game. You can see it in his bowling as well, so I think the combination we have is something that gives us a lot of confidence to go out there and play like that, and yeah, the message in the group is simple. If you see a ball to hit, you back yourself, go for it, because we have the batting depth and we have the confidence in the group as well. (on the crowd here) Yeah, brilliant. I mean, firstly, we're quite happy that we were able to, play five games here. The fans get to see the team again, and yeah, it's just a special place to play cricket, and hopefully at the later stages of the tournament, we can come back here and, entertain the crowd once more. So, yeah, let's see what happens, but yeah, it's been brilliant to play at home and win, what, four out of five that we've won here, so it's been a great start."

Virat Kohli | Player of the Match 1/2: "Well, to be honest, it was. I mean, we had to kind of assess the wicket early on because A, they have a quality bowling attack and B, with a chase of 200 in Bangalore, we know we're only one partnership away. So I think the conversation between me and Bethell was to try and analyse first couple of overs what's going on and then try and take the game on from there. I think Dev's done this twice this season where he's come in and absolutely played a blinder from ball one. You know, the first ball he hit off Rabada was magnificent and he has the game awareness and the ability, especially in conditions like ours, to be able to play good cricketing shots and hurt opposition, striking over 200, which is quite rare, to be honest. You never see him slogging the ball. You feel like he's not giving you a sniff in the game and yet he's scoring so freely. So I think Dev's innings was the clear difference in the first half. And then I was just trying to stay, in the game enough so that he doesn't feel all the pressure. And it was my responsibility to try and hit boundaries at the right times. And yeah, that partnership was the gamesealer and the gamechanger for us eventually. (conversation with Padikkal) I mean, look, even in our bowling innings, I think we bowled really well to pull things back. They were about, I felt, 20-25 short in the end. We were looking at 230, 235 at one stage. But our bowlers did a magnificent job and the feedback was the pitch is not bad at all. It's probably the best batting conditions we've had so far. The ball was coming on nicely. The spinners were not quite getting the ball to grip. It wasn't holding into the pitch. So we felt like if you stay in the game enough, string in a big partnership, then it's going to get tougher and tougher. And yeah, once you get hold of the conditions and you get on top of the bowlers, then you obviously back yourselves a little more to take the game on. And that was the conversation. Dev was going great guns and the idea was just to, keep pressing the bowlers back. And whoever we felt like, we want to take down, the message was very clear from the batsmen and then the non-striker saying, yeah, go for it. So there was intent and there was clarity and feedback from the other end. So we didn't have any doubts whatsoever through the partnership. And I think that's what worked for us."

Rajat Patidar | RCB Captain: "Yeah, I think that was a tight match, but there are a lot of learnings from this game. But if I start, the way we started our bowling, first of all, I think the way Bhuvi and Hazelwood bowled the areas, I think that was pretty good. And afterward, I think the way we came in, I think Suyash has bowled pretty well. And in the death, the yorkers bowled by Rasikh and Bhuvi and Hazelwood, I think that was nice to see. (on restricting GT in the back-end) Yeah, I think we made the target that if we can stop them under 200, around 200, then that is a good total for us to chase down. But I think, yeah, the way last year was, as I said, I think the way we bowled our plans, according to our plans, the execution was totally spot-on. The way they bowled the yorkers, that was pretty much good, and that's why we stopped them under 200 to 205. That's it. (on the Kohli-Padikkal stand) Superb. I think the way Bethell and Vicky bhaiya started and that kept us on the driving seat and special knock by Devdutt, that was nice to see. That was quickfirey from the Dev and I enjoyed a lot. But I think in the middle overs, I think we lost couple of wickets early, back-to-back wickets. I think that's a learning from this game. And yeah, let's see, we'll go back and we'll do our.... whatever errors we've done in this match, we'll try to rectify on it."

Devdutt Padikkal: "Yeah, it feels great. I've been working really hard to get to where I am right now, so I've put a lot of effort in and it's good to see that it's coming to good use. (what is he doing differently?) Yeah, I think it's a lot to do with just self-belief that the management has given me and at the same time, there are a few technical changes that I've made over the last couple of years and yeah, you have to just commit to those changes. Initially, it was difficult because obviously, it's a lot of change to my usual routines and process, but at the end of the day, now I'm getting those results. (on his six off Siraj over extra-cover) Yeah, it was probably my favorite shot of the day for sure. (on taking down spin) Yeah, you can say that, but at the end of the day, it's important that I, you know, play according to the situation and assess what's going on out there because we understood that chasing a total around 210, it's important that we make full use of the powerplay and then the next few overs, you have to take that momentum forward and that's what I was looking to do. (striking at 190) Yeah, it's just great to do that, but at the end of the day, I want to continue batting and finish games off, so hopefully I can do that soon. (lot of firepower below you, does that help?) Yeah, 100%. We have seen what Tim, Romario and Jitesh are capable of down the order and when you have that kind of firepower waiting in the wings, you have free will to just go out there and express yourself and so far, we have been doing that consistently and hopefully we'll continue to do that."

Shubman Gill | GT captain: "Yeah, definitely, I think, from 16 till 19, those three overs, we couldn't get any boundaries and we didn't get as many runs as we would have liked. I think those three overs were very crucial for us. I mean, at the end of the powerplay, I think we were in a good position. It was all about taking wickets in the middle overs, which I think we were not able to just after the powerplay got over. (on dropping Kohli on 0) I mean, when a batsman gets dropped or not, it's always, it's tough on the fielder, but I think it's important how you come back in the game. And with the ball, I think we had our moments, but I don't think we were able to consistently hit the length ball, which was at times difficult to hit on this wicket. And you know, some balls here and there, and I think they batted brilliantly in the middle overs. (on Suthar) When we were batting, the balls that were, when I was batting, the balls that Krunal bowled slow, it was gripping a little bit. So, we thought we might take a chance. They are far ahead in the game. If we get a couple of wickets in this over, might bring us back in the game. (on Sai Sudharsan) Yeah, I mean, he was quite upset with the way he got in the previous couple of matches. But I think he covered up well. But in the next match, hopefully, he gives me a little bit more strike in the powerplay."

Stats by Shashikant Singh

RCB in Bengaluru in IPL 2026
Mats: 5
Won: 4
Lost: 1 (vs DC)

Most times successfully chasing 200-plus in IPL
10 - PBKS
6 - MI
5 - RR
5 - SRH
5 - RCB*

Successful 200-plus chases for RCB in IPL
228 vs LSG, Lucknow, 2025
206 vs GT, Bengaluru, 2026*
204 vs KXIP, Bengaluru, 2010
202 vs SRH, Bengaluru, 2026
201 vs GT, Ahmedabad, 2024

This is also the second-highest successful chase against GT after RR gunned down 210 runs at Jaipur last year.

Most wins for a team at a venue in IPL
58 - MI (Wankhede)
55 - KKR (Kolkata)
53 - CSK (Chennai)
50 - RCB (Bengaluru)*
40 - SRH (Hyderabad)
*including Super Over wins

All seven matches between these two sides have been won by the chasing team - four by RCB and three by GT.

23:01 Local Time, 17:31 GMT, 23:01 IST: Royal Challengers Bengaluru win by 5 wickets and climb back to second place on the points table. Gujarat Titans did well to post a strong score of 205 earlier in the evening, but RCB’s batting unit produced a composed chase in front of their home crowd. Sai Sudharsan starred with a brilliant century to lay the foundation for GT, though RCB’s bowlers were sharp at the death, nailing their yorkers and slower deliveries to keep the scoring in check, apart from an expensive final over from Krunal Pandya. In reply, Virat Kohli was dropped in the opening over and GT paid dearly for that miss. His stand with Devdutt Padikkal proved decisive, shifting the momentum firmly in RCB’s favour. Although RCB lost a few wickets through the middle phase, late hitting from Tim David and Krunal Pandya ensured they crossed the line comfortably. Stay around for the presentations..