IPL Final 2026: After a long wait of 17 years and a roller coaster of emotions, the joy has now doubled for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) fans. The Red and Gold Brigade has successfully saved their IPL title by defeating Gujarat Titans (GT) by five wickets in a one-sided title match played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. With this, RCB has become the third team in history after Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) to win the IPL title twice consecutively. This is RCB’s second IPL title and the franchise’s fourth overall cricket trophy, adding to the two Women’s Premier League (WPL) titles.

King Kohli’s magic worked, Raina said – ‘If the matter was big then the king was standing’
While chasing the target in the title match, RCB got off to a great start thanks to the 62-run partnership between Venkatesh Iyer (32 runs in 16 balls) and Virat Kohli. However, Gujarat tried to make a comeback in the middle order and at one time RCB’s score was 132 runs for 5 wickets. But despite wickets falling from the other end, ‘Chasemaster’ Virat Kohli stood firm.

Showing amazing adaptability in adverse conditions, he played a match-winning inning of unbeaten 75 runs with the help of 9 fours and 3 sixes in 42 balls and made the team champion with two overs remaining.

Cricket world including Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina congratulated
The cricket world has heartily congratulated RCB on this historic second consecutive title win:

Sachin Tendulkar: “Success changes the answers to your questions. Once you win, the job is not to prove that you can do it, but to prove that you can maintain it. RCB met this challenge brilliantly.”

Rajeev Shukla (BCCI Vice-President): He congratulated captain Rajat Patidar and the entire team and praised Virat Kohli’s “tremendous class” on the big stage.

faf du plessisWhile congratulating Mo Bobt, Andy Flower and the team, the former captain said that he had already said before the IPL that this is the most complete team.

Suresh Raina: “Once was so good, they did it twice. The trophy is in the right hands of Captain Rajat Patidar. Special mention to Virat – the matter was big, so there stood the king.”

Shikhar Dhawan: He said that winning two consecutive titles is a big success and Rajat Patidar should be proud to be included in the list of captains like Dhoni and Rohit Sharma. Along with this, he praised Bhuvneshwar Kumar for leading the bowling attack.

Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Ian Bishop also described RCB as a balanced team for every situation and termed this win as completely deserving. Rival team CSK also welcomed RCB to the back-to-back club.

Match Account: Bowlers restricted Gujarat to 155
Earlier, in the final match, RCB won the toss and decided to bowl first and restricted Gujarat Titans (GT) to a score of 155/8 runs in 20 overs.

From Gujarat, only Washington Sundar (50 not out in 37 balls) and Nishant Sindhu (20 runs in 18 balls) were successful in crossing the 20-run mark. For RCB, Rasikh Dar Salam bowled lethally and took 3 wickets for 27 runs, while experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 2 wickets for 29 runs and Josh Hazlewood took 2 important wickets for 37 runs, due to which Gujarat team failed to score big.

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