Despite Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s heroic 96, Shubman Gill’s century powers Gujarat Titans to the final, where Royal Challengers Bengaluru await.
The two teams that finished at the top of the league table will fight it out for the IPL 2026 trophy. Going into the game, the openers of both teams were in focus and Gujarat Titans’ Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan upstaged Rajasthan Royals’ Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, despite the latter giving another exhibition of his unbelievable capabilities. Set 215 to win, Titans made light work of the chase, entering their third IPL final in five years.
Even as Sooryavanshi was threatening to take the game away, during the interaction with the host broadcaster, Gujarat’s assistant coach Parthiv Patel felt that if they restricted Rajasthan below 220, they were in a good spot. The eventual required run rate at the start of the chase was 10.75, well within Gujarat’s reach, provided they stuck to their template.
Having been blown apart in the Powerplay against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Gill and Sudharsan seldom took any undue risk right through their 167-run stand that lasted 12.5 overs before the left-hander was out hit wicket like he did against RCB. ON display were two elegant batsmen with compact techniques to rely on, playing to their strengths, picking the right deliveries to attack and milking singles and twos effortlessly.
A knock to salute 🫡
A trademark celebration to frame 🖼️Updates ▶️ https://t.co/eupS8cBPc2#TATAIPL | #Qualifier2 | #TheFinalLeap | #GTvRR | @gujarat_titans pic.twitter.com/noseNMmrib
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If there was one bowler who could trouble them, it was Jofra Archer, the in-form speedster whose pace and bounce was expected to be handy on the New Chandigarh surface. However, with Archer not finding his range, Sudharsan and Gill hit him for two boundaries each in the first over to set the tone. From there on, runs flowed freely.
India’s Test and ODI captain, who was deemed not good enough to fit into the T20 World Cup side, put up a regal show. There was not a delivery which the 26-year-old tried to muscle. Instead, it was all about timing and playing into gaps, while going aerial whenever a chance presented itself. Having already made over 600 runs in the season, the century on Friday in a match-winning cause will only propel his name in discussions when it comes to Indian team selection. Who knows what winning a trophy can do as the temptation of having a single captain for all formats would be too hard to resist for the selectors.
Gill’s batting isn’t going to be a problem. This was an innings paced perfectly, as he brought up his fifty off 30 deliveries before getting to his fifth IPL century off 47. It was clean, steady acceleration without breaking sweat. On a night when flicks, drives, and swats dictated his innings, it was the three pulls that stood out. Each of them was picked up right in front of his eyes, and was met with the meat of the bat, with one going the distance. Complementing Gill perfectly was Sudharsan, whose array of cuts and drives were second to none. The two openers have 11 century stands in T20s, the most for any pair in the world.
Under immense pressure, the Captain says 𝙆𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝘾𝙖𝙡𝙢
🧘♂️🎥 The moment Shubman Gill got to a masterful ton 👏
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Running successfully: Sooryavanshi
As RCB had shown in Qualifier I, Gujarat’s plans are too rigid. They have certain limitations and have to play around with them. But when the opportunity presented itself to bat them out of the game, the Rajasthan batting, except Sooryavanshi, failed on the night. In the last leg of the tournament, their batting being largely dependent on a 15-year-old summed up their campaign.
Even before they could get a hang of the conditions, they were two down, losing Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel to two of the best Powerplay bowlers. Even in the middle order, with the exception of Ravindra Jadeja – who was the first to counter-attack when Sooryavanshi was still searching for rhythm – the rest crumbled against the high-quality Gujarat attack. Rajasthan ended up with 214, but they had kept one door open for Gujarat as this was the sort of target they don’t sweat over.
THE VAIBHAV SOORYAVANSHI SHOW 🤩🩷
🎥 The Boy Wonder playing fire with fire 🔥
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Holding Rajasthan’s innings together, before Jadeja and Donovan Ferreira took it past 200, was Sooryavanshi. Having been rattled early by the sheer pace of Rabada, he stood his ground courageously. There was even an instance where one of the South African’s short deliveries – there were plenty of them aimed at his body – hit Sooryavanshi flush on the left ear, needing a short medical break.
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But moments later, the left-hander was back to playing pulls and hooks. They weren’t his best, but it didn’t matter on the night. Those testing moments aside, he was in his element whenever an opportunity presented itself. Having made a habit recently of getting out in the 90s, he once again narrowly missed a century that was there for the taking, as he fell for 96. The scoreboard will show he took only 47 deliveries. But that won’t reveal the full picture of the knock.
Brief scores: Rajasthan Royals 214/6 in 20 overs (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 96, Ravindra Jadeja 45 not out, Donovan Ferreira 38 not out; Jason Holder 2/27) lost to Gujarat Titans 219/3 in 18.4 overs (Sai Sudharsan 58, Shubman Gill 104; Nandre Burger 1/35) by 7 wickets.
