Gujarat Titans qualify for the IPL 2026 final. The side defeated Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets in Qualifier 2 played at New Chandigarh.
This loss will bring an end to Rajasthan's season while GT take one step closer in winning another IPL title.
There was controversy right from the start with the toss as Rajasthan captain Riyan Parag's call wasn't heard by the match referee the first time and had to be repeated. Parag went on to win the toss and elected to bat first. Rajasthan came into the game with the same playing eleven as they did against Sunrisers Hyderabad, whereas Gujarat had a solitary change, with R Sai Kishore replacing Kulwant Khejroliya.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi stars but the team falls short
Rajasthan had a terrible start as they lost their opener Yashasvi Jaiswal for one. Jurel was next to depart after scoring seven, with Rajasthan at 9/2. In a surprising turn of events, Ravindra Jadeja was sent in to bat ahead of the skipper Riyan Parag and helped steadied the innings. Jadeja retired hurt after scoring 34 and later came back to complete his innings.
Riyan Parag got off to a start once again, but it wasn't a large one as per his standards. The star for Rajasthan today was the young Vaibhav Sooryavanshi who played a brilliant 96 run inning to miss out on a century by just four runs. Jadeja was unbeaten on 45 when he came back to the crease.
Donovan Ferreira ended the innings with a flurry of sixes, scoring 38 off just 11 balls. Rajasthan Royals finished with a mammoth 214 runs on the board.
Shubman Gill masterminds GT chase
Chasing 215, Gujarat Titans had a dream start from their skipper Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan, who were in to bat with the new ball. The pair were on fire and added 167 runs for the first wicket to take the game completely out of the reach of Rajasthan.
Sudharsan scored 58 and was dismissed in an uncanny manner after his wicket was dislodged by a hit-wicket, the second in three days he was dismissed in such a way.
Gill was at his fluent best and ended up scoring a brilliant hundred. The skipper reached 104 after bringing up his hundred off 47 balls. This innings put Gujarat Titans completely in the driver's seat of the chase.
Rahul Tewatia remained unbeaten on 17 and hit the winning runs for his side as Gujarat Titans booked their spot in the IPL 2026 final. Washington Sundar chipped in with 16 off nine balls before his departure.
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Reacting to the loss Riyan Parag said:
"It was a par score, it was defendable. I thought it got better for us after the heavy roller in the second innings. In the first innings the bowlers got some grip and the slower one worked well. I thought it would have been a par score of 230 and a score of around 240 would have been challenging, but we should have gotten the openers out early".
He added:
"It did not happen and it became tough for us. To sum up one sentence for this entire season, it's been a season of positives. We were not expected to qualify at all, given that majority of our players were so young, but lot of young guns performed exceptionally well and there is only going to be more to come. (On Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's Innings) I just cannot put words to that, it is one way to hit the ball and score runs by slogging".
Riyan Parag on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi:
"But he is not a slogger, look at his innings today- he calculates and hits his shots and I cannot say how but he is certainly going to perform better in his career perform for Rajasthan Royals and win us a second title".
Rajasthan Royals walk away from the season with a lot of positives as they head into next season with a number of young players who have performed incredibly well and especially the knock from young Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, whereas Gujarat Titans march into the IPL 2026 final with full steam.