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Match number 73 of the Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 was Qualifier 2 of the tournament, where Gujarat Titans (GT) took on Rajasthan Royals (RR) at New Chandigarh. The match ended in disappointment for Riyan Parag’s team as they lost the match by 7 wickets and were eliminated from the tournament.
Controversy broke out even before the match started, because the match referee did not listen to Riyan Parag’s call for the first time and had to do so again. Riyan Parag won the toss and decided to bat first. He played with the same team in their win against SRH. GT made one change and included R Sai Kishore in place of Kulwant Khejroliya.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s heart broke
Yashasvi Jaiswal, who came to bat first, was out early on just one run. Next came Dhruv Jurel, who was out after scoring 7 runs and RR were reduced to 9/2. In place of Riyan Parag, Ravindra Jadeja came to bat for the team and formed a partnership before retiring hurt at the score of 34 runs. Riyan Parag once again failed to convert his start.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi performed absolutely amazing that night, he scored 96 runs but missed out on a century. Jadeja came back and remained unbeaten on 45, and Donovan Ferreira’s 38 off 11 helped RR cross 200 as they scored 214 runs in their 20 overs.
Shubman Gill shines for GT
While chasing, Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan got off to a great start as the duo made a 167-run partnership but were later out for 58 runs due to hit-wicket. Sai was left in disbelief after being bizarrely dismissed twice in a span of three days.
GT Captain played a brilliant century of 47 runs and was out on 104 runs. Rahul Tewatia finished the game in brilliant style and remained unbeaten on 17*. Washington Sundar scored 16 runs in 9 balls and was out.
It was an equal score – Riyan Parag
Riyan Parag said after the match, “It was a par score; it could have been defended. I thought after the heavy roller, it got better in the second innings. In the first innings, the bowlers got some grip, and the slower bowlers did well. I thought 230 would have been a par score. A score around 240 would have been challenging, but we needed early openers.”
“That didn’t happen, which made it difficult for us. (On the season) To sum it up in one sentence, there were a lot of positives. We didn’t qualify because a lot of the players were young and inexperienced, but a lot of the youngsters performed well and can only improve from here. (On Vaibhav Suryavanshi) I can’t put it into words, there is a way where you work hard and score a lot of runs.”
Ryan Parag on Vaibhav Suryavanshi said, “But he doesn’t work too hard, you can see his innings today – he calculates and plays his shots. I can’t say how, but hopefully he will do well in his career, do well for Rajasthan Royals and get us a second title.”
Also read: Vaibhav Suryavanshi heartbroken; RR youngster almost cried after Qualifier 2 loss against GT