Gujarat Titans (GT) opener Sai Sudharsan has been one of the most consistent batters in IPL 2026.
The Tamil Nadu cricketer is currently the Orange Cap holder in IPL 2026 with 652 runs from 15 matches, and is in pole position to clinch the award again.
Sai Sudharsan had won the Orange Cap in IPL 2025 after scoring 759 runs from 15 matches at a strike rate of 156.17.
Sai Sudharsan, however, had a day to forget in the IPL 2026 Qualifier 1 clash against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Dharamsala on Tuesday.
While he did play aggressively, hitting three fours, he was unable to convert his start into a big knock. Sai Sudharsan was eventually dismissed for 14 runs off nine balls.
Sai Sudharsan sets forgettable record
Sai Sudharsan was dismissed in a bizarre way during GT's IPL 2026 Qualifier 1 match against RCB.
Facing Jacob Duffy in the third ball of the third over, Sudharsan played an aggressive cut shot through point, only for his bat to slip out of his hand and hit the stumps.
As a result, the 24-year-old was declared hit-wicket. By doing so, the left-handed batter became the first-ever batter in the history of IPL to have been dismissed via a hit-wicket on two occasions.
The first time was during a match against Mumbai Indians (MI) in IPL 2022. Mumbai Indians' Kieron Pollard unleashed a bouncer in the 16th over of Gujarat Titans' innings, and Sai Sudharsan went for a pull shot.
However, the bat ended up flying out of Sai Sudharsan's bottom-hand before it crashed onto the stumps. Following Tuesday's incident against RCB, Sudharsan became only the second player to have been dismissed via a hit-wicket in an IPL playoff match.
Kusal Mendis, who also played for Gujarat Titans, was the first player to have done so when he was dismissed during the IPL 2025 Eliminator against Mumbai Indians.
Talking about the match, Gujarat Titans won the toss and opted to field first. Kagiso Rabada struck in the second over of the match to get rid of Venkatesh Iyer. However, RCB reacted stringly to Iyer's dismissal.
Virat Kohli played an aggressive knock of 43 runs from 25 balls, and so did Devdutt Padikkal as well, who scored 30 runs from 19 balls. Krunal Pandya too played his part with a 28-ball 43. However, skipper Rajat Patidar was the ultimate game-changer for RCB.
He was dropped twice in an over when he was batting on 14 and 20, and those couple of drops proved to be costly for Gujarat Titans. Rajat Patidar raced to his half-century off just 21 balls, and went onto slam an unbeaten 93 runs off 33 balls to help RCB post 254/5 on the board.
Gujarat Titans were clueless in their reply as they were restricted to 51/5 in the powerplay. Jacob Duffy struck twice, whereas Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rasikh Dar Salam struck once each to hurt Gujarat Titans' chances. The 2022 IPL champions were further down to 88/8 in the 12th over following the dismissal of Kagiso Rabada.
The lone warrior for Gujarat Titans was Rahul Tewatia, who slammed 68 runs from 43 balls, but GT had lost half the side by the time he came out to bat, and there was hardly anyone who could support him. Tewatia forged a 68-run stand from 41 balls with Mohammed Siraj, who contributed just five runs but was crucial to support the settled batter at the other end.
Gujarat Titans were eventually bowled out for 162 in 19.3 overs. The Shubman Gill-led side will next lock horns against either Sunrisers Hyderabad or Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2 in Mullanpur on Friday.