Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Gujarat Titans, Qualifier 1, Indian Premier League 2026 - CommentaryRCB vs GT, Qualifier 1, Indian Premier League 2026 - Commentary

First team to progress to the playoffs, table-toppers at the end of the group stage and now a statement win in the first qualifier from the defending champions. RCB now head to Ahmedabad for the final - the venue where they won the title last year. GT, meanwhile, get another shot. They'll face the winner of tomorrow's Eliminator. That's it for today. Until next time, it's goodbye from Abhinand Raghavendran, Pradeep Krishnamurthy, Nikhil Jadhav and Mukesh.

Rajat Patidar | RCB captain and Player of the Match: It was a super game for us and the way especially the batsmen dominated in this game, the way everyone was striking with intent, that was good for us. It's not a clear plan (to go after the GT bowlers), but we're ready for it because you have to show some body language that we are coming for you. That was there in every batsman. So we had a chat in the meeting, we have to give a good body language and the attacking mindset. It was a big stage, Qualifier 1, the way we played, the way we dominated in this game, I think that was superb. (On his batting) The way of my batting is similar. Starting, I take some few balls, 8-10 balls to see how the wicket is behaving and what the ball is doing. And after that, I have a clear mind that how I have to go about it and I am not worried about the wicket. I always like to put bowler under pressure. (On the bowling) To be honest, the wicket was not that easy to go under the ball and hit the long sixes because there was very good bounce and the way bowlers executed their plans, bowled more balls on the stumps, I think that helped. The way GT played till now, I think the three main batsmen was top three and we were clear that we have to get them out in the powerplay and hopefully it worked. (On bringing Romario as the Impact Player) I was just checking that if we go in the finals and how Romario will bowl in the middle overs, so that was the plan behind it. It will be a good recovery and let's go for the finals.

Most wicket in an edition for RCB
32 Harshal Patel (2021)
26 Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2026) *
26 Wanindu Hasaranga (2022)
23 R Vinay Kumar (2013)
23 Yuzvendra Chahal (2015)

- First time in nine matches bw these two sides, the side batting first ended up winning

- Gujarat Titans only bigger defeat by runs came against MI in Ahmedabad earlier in the season (99 runs)

Defending champions reaching finals in the subsequent year
CSK in 2010-11
CSK in 2011-12
CSK in 2018-19
MI in 2019-20
GT in 2022-23
RCB in 2025-26

Most appearances in IPL finals
10 CSK (5 wins)
6 MI (5 wins)
5 RCB (1 win) *
4 KKR (3 wins)
3 SRH (1 win)

Biggest wins in IPL knockouts/Play Offs (by runs)
105 RR vs DC Wankhede 2008
92 RCB vs GT Dharamsala 2026 *
86 CSK vs DC Chennai 2012
81 MI vs LSG Chennai 2023
71 RCB vs RR Pune 2015

Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Purple Cap holder - I think a lot of credit goes to the men behind the scenes. (On how the experience of working with the support staff helped) It's everyone. I mean, yes, the experience we brought in, me and Hoff (Hazlewood) is one thing, but yes, when it comes to support staff, the small, small things they're bringing it, you might avoid that. But if experienced players like Hoff and I are accepted and you apply that rule, it works for us. And I think we've been doing that since the first match and it's helping us a lot. (If RCB tends to use more data) I think we can say that we are data informed. If there is something new the players are doing, okay, we definitely look into that and try to adapt. But we don't depend 100% on data. But yes it helps. (on his plans with the ball) That's like I said, part of the planning. If you look at that plan, anything short or fuller, it goes for a boundary. But yes, we make a lot of effort not to give any room and try to get LBW and bowled. So it's definitely part of our planning.

Shubman Gill | Gujarat Titans captain: (Surprised with the way the pitch behaved?) I mean, not really. I think we were going pretty well up until the 12th, 13th over, and I don't think our fielding was at par, dropping a couple of catches, and then our ground fielding was not up to the mark. (There are plenty of learnings from this game for you as well?) Yeah, definitely, you know, this is, like you said, one of those games that we'd like to forget and start over in Mohali. (Is that [fielding errors] something that you'll address at training?) No, it's definitely something that we do address in the team meetings and also in the practice sessions. But like I said, I don't think it was our day, the intensity was right there, but under pressure situations, we were not up to the mark. (Were you confident walking out to bat with the chase?) I mean, it's all about getting a good start, you know. If you get a good power play and on a ground like this we know the ball travels and the outfield is also very quick. So if you would have gotten off to a good start in the power play, any target with the kind of way the wicket was playing and the kind of ground that we were playing at, it could have been chaseable. (On Sudharsan's dismissal) Yeah, I mean, you don't see that kind of dismissal very often. So that was very unfortunate.

23:44 Local Time, 18:14 GMT: A dominant performance from Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Just Net Run Rate separated these two teams at the end of the group stage. But Qualifier 1 turned out to be a one-sided encounter. RCB were inserted to bat and Venkatesh Iyer played a nice little cameo at the start. That was followed by a 72-run stand between Kohli and Padikkal who batted at a good tempo. Holder removed both of them in the same over. Just when it seemed like GT could make a comeback, Rajat Patidar blew them away. After getting a reprieve on 20, the RCB captain made the Titans pay with a fantabulous 93* off just 33 deliveries. RCB posted a mammoth 254 and got off to a perfect start with the ball as they removed GT's top three inside 5 overs. Sai fell in an unlucky manner, Bhuvi accounted for Gill and Hazlewood cleaned up Buttler after conceding 14 runs off the 3 previous deliveries. Rasikh Salam Dar bowled a double wicket maiden to further reduce the Titans to 51/5, which quickly became 88/8. Rahul Tewatia, GT's Impact Player, recorded his second IPL fifty by hitting most of his boundaries behind square on the leg-side but that knock only helped in reducing the margin of defeat.

Krunal Pandya to Mohammed Siraj, THATS OUT!! Caught!!