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It took Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) 18 years to earn their first championship, but they quickly became the third team to defend it successfully. Their fast bowlers made excellent use of a somewhat tricky pitch after Rajat Patidar won the toss in the IPL 2026 final, limiting Gujarat Titans (GT), who were playing in their third final in five years, to 155 runs. This was the same score RCB had achieved in the earlier match against the same team at the same venue on pitch No. 6. Josh Hazlewood, who has never faced defeat in a T20 or ODI final, set the tone by taking Shubman Gill's wicket in his first over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar briefly took back the Purple Cap by claiming two wickets, while Rasikh Salam finished his best IPL season with three wickets, increasing his total for the year to 19. Last season's Player of the Match, Krunal Pandya, who has now won his fifth IPL final, also contributed by getting the key wicket of Jos Buttler while bowling 4 overs for 23 runs and 1 wicket. He is now third in the list of players with most titles, behind only Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu, and is the first to defend a title with two different teams.

This IPL saw only three out of 26 scores under 190 successfully defended in a complete match. With the ball still moving around, the top bowling attack in the tournament believed they had a shot, but as wickets fell, Virat Kohli took this final to score his quickest IPL fifty and his highest playoff score, helping RCB win by five wickets with two overs left. Gill and B Sai Sudharsan entered the final as the only duo from the same team to have scored over 700 runs in this IPL, but they faced bowlers who had caused them difficulties before. A cautious start occurred, with Gill getting through the over from Bhuvneshwar, but Hazlewood forced him into a top edge on his trademark short-arm pull. GT moved Nishant Sindhu up to No. 3 to shield Buttler from Bhuvneshwar, but the clever bowler made sure Buttler had to bat soon by dismissing Sai Sudharsan in his second over. Bhuvneshwar first tricked Sai Sudharsan with a bouncer, then bowled another that hit the bottom edge. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, present in Ahmedabad, had now secured the Orange Cap. This was only the fourth time this IPL that both GT's openers were dismissed in the powerplay, with three of those instances against RCB.

Noticing some grip on the pitch and seeing conventional batters at the crease, Krunal decided to set aside his tricky deliveries and focused solely on bowling length. In his initial three overs, he did not let any boundaries happen. At the same time, Salam was also economical, consistently bowling a good length while taking advantage of the minor changes in the pitch. One of his deliveries led to Sindhu being caught at long-on. When Krunal began his last over, they had bowled 37 legal balls without conceding a boundary. Anticipating that a frustrated Buttler might attempt something risky, Krunal delivered a wide yorker, resulting in an outstanding stumping by Jitesh Sharma. Following this, Arshad Khan came in and hit a six on the fourth ball of the 13th over, just one ball faster than the record for the longest time taken to hit a six in an IPL final.

Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar, and Salam did not give anything away during the death overs. Each time GT thought they could gain some momentum, one of the fast bowlers struck with a wicket. Hazlewood dismissed Arshad, Bhuvneshwar reached 28 wickets this season by getting Jason Holder out, and Salam removed both Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan towards the end. Jacob Duffy did not take any wickets, but he came close with Washington Sundar, who managed to score a spirited 50 off 37 balls. Venkatesh Iyer similarly gave the average chase a strong beginning, replicating his solid 50 at two runs per ball from the 2024 final. Though he wasn't supposed to take risks, a knee injury in the first over of this chase forced him to be aggressive. He took on Rabada in his first over, and by the time Mohammed Siraj dismissed him for 32 off 16 balls, he had set RCB on the path to success.

While Venkatesh had a particular reason to be aggressive, Kohli attacked Rabada with a level of intensity that reflected a season where he has been comparable to some of the younger, dynamic T20 players. Among the six players who have scored over 600 runs this IPL, only Sooryavanshi and Ishan Kishan have done it faster than Kohli's 675 at a strike rate of 165.84. As usual, Kohli was enthusiastic when facing his long-time rival Rabada, hitting a magnificent six and three fours in Rabada's second over. The bowler's nerves were shaken against Kohli, whose first run on the off side marked his 39th run. By that point, Rabada regained the Purple Cap by taking Devdutt Padikkal’s wicket, and Rashid Khan soon claimed two wickets in his opening over, yet the required run rate was already less than a run per ball. An injury to Kohli was the only thing that slowed RCB's progress to the championship, but he wrapped things up in style with a four and a six off the last two deliveries of the 18th over.