RCB vs GT IPL 2026 Final: ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man’ is an age-old adage and been used multiple time for Virat Kohli in his glorious career. The same words were used for the ‘King’ when he led India to their second T20 World Cup title in 2024 before walking away from international cricket and the same words hold true as he helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru create history in the IPL 2026 final. Defending champions RCB hammered Gujarat Titans by five wickets with 2 overs to spare at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday to help them defend their title.
In the process, RCB have become just the third team in the history of the Indian Premier League to defend their title and win back-to-back finals after Chennai Super Kings (in 2010 and 2011) and Mumbai Indians (2019 and 2020). It was a special innings from Kohli, which made modest 156-run chase, a complete dawdle.
Kohli battled a knee injury, extreme humid conditions in Ahmedabad and pressure of the final to notch up his fastest IPL fifty of his 18-year-old career off only 25 balls with 2 sixes and 7 fours. It was the 68th fifty of his illustrious IPL career and first one in an IPL final after 10 years – the last one coming in a defeat in 2016 edition against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
One & only, #KingKohli! #ViratKohli smashes his fastest fifty the #TATAIPL and what an occasion to do so! #TATAIPL 2026 FINAL | #RCBvGT | LIVE NOW https://t.co/nTKb3Qmpst pic.twitter.com/dxMswncGcz
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) May 31, 2026
The 37-year-old was seen hobbling to run between the wickets with a heavily strapped knee but he wasn’t ready to throw in the towel yet. It was Kohli’s opening partner Venkatesh Iyer, who provided the initial impetus with a blazing 32 off 16 balls with 2 sixes and 4 fours as the 50-run opening partnership came up in only 21 balls.
But Kohli opened up in Purple Cap winner Kagiso Rabada’s second over, smashing the GT pacer for 18 runs in the first four balls with 3 fours and a six to kick his innings into gear. Rabada bounced back to claim his 29th wicket by dismissing Devdutt Padikkal for 1 and take away from Purple Cap from RCB’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar – who ended up with 28 wickets in 16 matches.
The Titans were given small ray of hope with Rashid Khan double-wicket opening over as he dismissed RCB captain Rajat Patidar (15) and Krunal Pandya (1) in the space of 3 deliveries to reduce the champions 91 for 4 but the run-rate was always under control as they were blazing at over 10 runs an over.
Tim David put on a crucial 41-run partnership with Kohli, while scoring 24 in 17 balls with 1 six and 3 fours to get RCB within touching distance of the target before falling caught behind off Arshad Khan.
Kohli’s 25-ball half-century was the joint 2nd fastest in IPL final with Rohit Sharma’s in IPL 2015 and Chris Gayle’s in IPL 2016. Only Suresh Raina (CSK, IPL 2010), David Warner (SRH, IPL 2016) and Venkatesh Iyer (KKR, IPL 2024) had scored 24-ball fifties in IPL finals.
The RCB opener survived a tough chance while batting on 63 with GT captain Shubman Gill failing to latch onto a chance in the covers. Kohli remained unbeaten on 75 off 42 balls with 3 sixes and 9 fours while Jitesh Sharma was unbeaten on 11 at the other end.
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Earlier, the GT innings never found any momentum after losing the early wickets of their prolific openers Shubman Gill (10) and Sai Sudharsan (12) for 26 runs after being sent into bat. The IPL 2022 champions went through 40 deliveries without getting a boundary as RCB bowlers led by Rasikh Salam Dar (3/27), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/29) and Josh Hazlewood (2/37) keeping a stranglehold over them.
GT all-rounder Washington Sundar put on a brave 50 off 37 balls with 5 fours to take them to 155 for 8 – a total well below average par score of around 199 on this track.
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Devadyuti Das is a senior sports editor with two decades of expertise in the media landscape. Based in New Delhi, Devadyuti has been a fixture in sports reporting since 2005, specializing in Internati … Read More
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