IPL 2026: how Royal Challengers Bengaluru retained the title

Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Gujarat Titans by 5 wickets in the 2026 IPL final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, and in doing so retained the title they'd won for the first time just a year earlier. Gujarat Titans posted 155 for 8 in their 20 overs, and Bengaluru chased it down with 12 balls to spare, finishing on 161 for 5. Virat Kohli picked up player of the match for an unbeaten 75 off 42.

It's a strange thing to say about a club with three of the biggest names in Indian cricket on its books, but for most of the last two decades RCB were basically defined by not winning. Good squads, good seasons, plenty of playoff appearances, and then nothing at the end of it. Winning it in 2025 and then coming back and doing it again in 2026 isn't a lucky bounce anymore, it's a team that's actually figured something out. Two titles back to back changes how people will talk about this side going forward.

Neither side arrived at the final as an underdog. RCB topped the league table with 22 points from 16 games, 11 wins, the best regular-season record in the competition. Gujarat weren't far behind, 20 points from 17 games for second place, so this was the top two meeting in the final exactly as the table said it should, no surprise package involved on either side.

Jacob Duffy opened the bowling and had a rough time of it. Sai Sudharsan took him for back to back fours in the first over, and by the end of it Gujarat were 13 without loss, helped along by three wides. Bhuvneshwar Kumar came on at the other end and settled things down a bit, going for just 5 in his first over, but the pattern for the innings was already there: boundaries in clusters, then a bowler dragging the rate back.

Shubman Gill didn't last long. He drove Josh Hazlewood for four in the third over and was caught the very next ball, RCB's first breakthrough with the total on 24. Bhuvneshwar struck again the following over, Sudharsan chipping one to Jitesh Sharma behind the stumps after a promising start of his own, out for 12 off 12. Two of Gujarat's top three gone inside four overs, and it was Nishant Sindhu and Jos Buttler who had to rebuild.

They did it by scoring, not surviving. Sindhu took two fours off Hazlewood in the fifth over, then another off Rasikh Salam in the sixth, running the innings along at close to a run a ball through the middle overs alongside Buttler, who was working the strike around rather than looking for boundaries of his own. By the halfway mark, 10 overs, Gujarat were 63 for 2, a platform rather than a total, but a platform all the same.

Krunal Pandya's off-spin quietly did a lot of the containing work through overs 7, 9 and 11, going for five, four and four while the more expensive pace bowlers were rotated at the other end. Rasikh Salam got the breakthrough that mattered most in over 8, Sindhu caught for 20 off 18 having top-scored to that point, and it was Rasikh again who struck twice more later in the innings.

Buttler's innings ended in over 13, stumped off Krunal Pandya for 19 off 23, a knock that never really got away from the tempo it started at. That brought Washington Sundar to the crease, and what followed was the difference between a par total and the 155 Gujarat actually posted. Arshad Khan joined him and the pair put on a genuine assault: Krunal's over 13 went for 10 including a six from Khan, and Jacob Duffy's return in over 14 went for 16, two fours to Sundar and a six from Khan.

Khan didn't last much longer, caught off Hazlewood for 15 off just 6 balls, strike rate 250, but Sundar kept going, farming the strike through overs 15 to 17 as wickets fell around him at the other end. Hazlewood's 18th over went for 16 with three more fours in it, two to Sundar and one to Jason Holder, and Bhuvneshwar had Holder caught behind in the 19th. Sundar was still there in the 20th, and it was the fifth ball of that final over, with Gujarat already effectively out of partners to protect, that took him to a fifty off 37 balls. He finished unbeaten on exactly 50 as Gujarat closed on 155 for 8, Rashid Khan having gone for six and then been caught in the deep earlier in that same over.

Rasikh Salam finished with 3 for 27 from his four overs, the pick of the Bengaluru bowlers on a night none of them were cheap; Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood both went for two wickets apiece but leaked over 9 runs an over doing it.

Mohammed Siraj opened with a tight first over, five runs off it, but Kagiso Rabada's first over went the other way entirely, 18 runs including a four, a six and two more fours to Venkatesh Iyer. Iyer carried on in the same vein against Siraj in the third over, another four, while Virat Kohli started finding his own boundaries at the other end.

Kohli's innings really took off in the fourth over, three fours and a six off Rabada, 19 runs off it, and by the end of the powerplay Bengaluru were already ahead of the rate at 55 without loss. It didn't last much longer as a stand. Siraj had Iyer caught in the deep in the fifth over for 32 off 16, and Rabada removed Devdutt Padikkal for just 1 the following over, two wickets in as many overs bringing Rajat Patidar to the middle with the score on 70 for 2.

That was the moment the chase could have tightened up. Instead Kohli kept the rate ticking and Patidar found his feet quickly, a six off Siraj in over 7 among his early runs. Rashid Khan's leg spin was the one real threat Bengaluru had to survive in the middle overs, and he did make it count, having Patidar caught for 15 in over 9 and trapping Krunal Pandya lbw for just 1 two balls later, two wickets in one over that took Bengaluru from cruising to 91 for 4.

Kohli and Tim David steadied it from there, adding 41 together through overs 10 to 14 without ever looking hurried, David striking a six off Rashid Khan along the way. David fell in over 14, caught off Arshad Khan for 24 off 17, but by then the equation was firmly in Bengaluru's favour. Jitesh Sharma joined Kohli and the pair simply ran the chase down through overs 15 to 17, working ones and twos against Prasidh Krishna, Arshad Khan and Rashid Khan rather than forcing anything.

The finish arrived quickly. Arshad Khan's 18th over went for 13, and it ended with Kohli hitting a four and then a six off consecutive balls to seal it, Bengaluru reaching 161 for 5 with two full overs, 12 balls, unused. Kohli finished unbeaten on 75 off 42, Jitesh Sharma not out on 11, and a required rate that never really threatened to get away from them, built on one bowler being taken apart early (Rabada finished with figures of 3 overs for 44) and Kohli simply not getting out.

Two Rabada overs went for 18 and then contributed heavily to a final analysis of 1 for 44 from 3 overs, easily the most expensive bowling of the match on an economy basis, and that early damage against Iyer and Kohli effectively decided the game before the halfway mark of the chase. Gujarat's own total was built the same way Bengaluru's chase was, a big finishing burst (Sundar and Khan added 16 off overs 14 and another 16 off over 18 between them) papering over a middle order that never really got loose against Rasikh Salam and Krunal Pandya.

For Bengaluru, winning back to back finals with Kohli batting through this one unbeaten is the kind of pattern that turns a good era into a great one. The next real test, as it always is after two, is whether a team that has just won this way can find a way to do it a third time without the same script being read by everyone trying to stop them.