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After some stellar batting from Rajat Patidar and Co., RCB were halfway into the final, but they needed a good start with the ball. RCB fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jacob Duffy gave them a great start by giving early blows in the powerplay.
Statistically, Royal Challengers Bangalore never had the upper hand over Gujarat Titans until the start of the match in Dharamshala in IPL 2026. RCB had a great start with the bat as players like Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal gave them a great start.
After this, Rajat Patidar played a huge inning of 93 runs and took Royal Challengers to a huge score of 254 runs. Patidar’s unbeaten innings and Krunal Pandya’s steady innings in the middle order took RCB to its highest score so far in the IPL playoffs.
Gujarat Titans lost the game after the rhythm slipped in the 14th over.
Gujarat Titans could not dominate in the powerplay; However, Jason Holder and Rashid Khan pulled the momentum back right after the end of the powerplay. Rashid kept bowling economically from one end and Holder kept taking wickets from the other end.
Jason Holder took two wickets in the 9th over of the game and helped them stage a comeback before brilliant innings from Krunal and Patidar. However, by the 12th or 13th over of the game the game was in favor of the Titans; However, several missed opportunities changed the course of the game.
“I mean, not really. I think we were doing quite well till the 12th and 13th overs and I don’t think our fielding was up to par, we missed a few catches and then our ground fielding was not good,” captain Shubman Gill said.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar tops the Purple Cap list with 26 wickets.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar also took two wickets in the important Qualifier 1 match. He dismissed batsmen like Shubman Gill at the top of the order and then got his second wicket by dismissing Rahul Tewatia, who scored a half-century in the Titans’ innings.
With these two wickets, Bhuvneshwar became the second highest wicket taker for RCB in a single season of IPL. After playing 15 matches this season, he now has 26 wickets to his name and now has the Purple Cap on his head.
“As I said, it’s part of the plan. If you look at that plan, anything shorter or fuller, it goes for a boundary. But yes, we try very hard not to give any chances and try to get LBW and bowled. So it’s definitely part of our plan,” said Bhuvneshwar Kumar when asked about his plan with the ball.
We are not 100% dependent on data: Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s final statement after RCB’s spectacular win against GT
Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed that much of the credit for the tremendous success of RCB bowlers goes to the support staff. “I think a lot of the credit goes to the people behind the scenes,” he claimed.
He said, “It’s for everyone. I mean, yes, the experience that me and Hoff (Hazlewood) bring is one thing, but yes, when it comes to the support staff, you can get away with the little things they bring. But if experienced players like Hoff and me are accepted and you enforce that rule, it works for us. And I think we have been doing that since the first game, and that has helped us a lot. Getting it.”
“I think we can say we are data-informed. If players are doing something new, then fine, we definitely look at that and try to adapt. But we are not 100% dependent on data. But yes, it helps,” said Bhuvneshwar Kumar on how RCB’s data-driven strategies have helped them in the IPL season.
Also Read: “Not worried about my wicket”: Rajat Patidar full of confidence after match-winning innings in IPL Qualifier 1 vs GT