IPL 2026 final: Chasemaster Virat Kohli makes it twice as nice!

Star batter Virat Kohli brought all his experience to the fore as he used his willow to perfection guiding Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their second straight Indian Premier League title at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on SundayKohli constructed a brilliant unbeaten 75 off 42 balls as the defending champions beat Gujarat Titans by five wickets The openerrsquos innings was laced with nine fours and three sixes Kohli did not let the pressure get to him despite RCB losing Devdutt Padikkal 1 Rajat Patidar 15 and Krunal Pandya 1 in the middle phaseEarlier RCB bowlers did well to first restrict a lethargic GT to a belowpar 1558 after putting them in to batRCB players celebrates the dismissal of GTrsquos Jos Buttler in Ahmedabad on Sunday PicIPLShotmaking was not exactly an easy proposition on the pitch No 6 here a mix of red and black soil and it aptly reflected in the GT batting Washington Sundar resisted the trend with an unbeaten 50 off 37 balls 5x4s but the damage around him was far too big to mitigate The fatigue of playing Qualifier 2 on Friday and a delayed departure because of inclement weather at Mullanpur also might have added to their list of woes But none of that should not take any credit away from the RCB bowlers who more often than not found the correct lengths on this deckGT needed skipper Shubman Gill and his opening partner B Sai Sudharsan to fire upfront but they failed in that endeavour A steady beginning was not alien to GT openers but Gillrsquos swat off Josh Hazlewood 237 took the leading edge of his bat to create a simple catch for his opposite number Rajat PatidarSudharsan who was once saved by DRS from being caught behind off Jacob Duffy did not last long either The lefthanderrsquos woeful pull off a welldirected high and wide bouncer by Bhuvneshwar Kumar 229 did not travel beyond a runningin stumper Jitesh SharmaAfter losing their two main batters who have amassed over 700 runs each this season the GT batting lost its rudders ending an underwhelming Power Play phase at 45 for two and there was no real fire or purpose in the rest of the batters to enact a recovery actYoung RCB pacer Rasikh Salam Dhar 327 continued his impressive run behind lead bowlers Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood picked up the wickets of an outofsync Nishant Sindhu 20 off 18 balls and Rahul Tewatia as the home side lost the cream of its batting lineup even before reaching 100124No of overs taken by GT to hit their first six on Sunday mdash the longest time taken by any team to clear the ropes in IPL1920No of wickets claimed by Kagiso Rabada in the Powerplay mdash the most by any player in an IPL edition45No of runs scored by GT in the Powerplay mdash their secondlowest this season25No of balls taken by Virat Kohli to reach his fifty mdash his fastestever IPL halfcentury3RCB are the third team to win backtoback IPL titles after Chennai Super Kings 2010 amp 2011 and Mumbai Indians 2019 amp 202033No of overs taken by RCB to reach 50 on Sunday mdash the fastest team fifty in an IPL final16Total number of players used by RCB mdash the fewest by any team in IPL19This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever