Ahmedabad: Royal Challengers Bengaluru became only the third franchise in IPL history to win back-to-back titles, crushing Gujarat Titans by five wickets in the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday, joining Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians in that elite bracket.
The red army, 18 years in the making, now has two trophies in 12 months.
Gujarat Titans, who had arrived at the final with ambitions of their own, were never in the contest. RCB restricted them to 155 before Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 75 off 42 balls sealed a dominant chase, the veteran signing off with a six off the final delivery in front of a crowd where more than 80 per cent of the 90,000-plus in attendance had turned up in red.
The blueprint had been written in Qualifier 1, where RCB hammered Gujarat by 92 runs in Dharamsala. In the final, they simply reprinted it.
Bowling first after winning the toss, RCB dismantled the Gujarat top order with clinical efficiency. Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan, two of the tournament’s leading run-scorers, fell inside the powerplay for the third time this season, leaving Gujarat at 26 for 2 in 3.4 overs.
Rasikh Salam Dar took three wickets, Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar chipped in with key strikes and the Ahmedabad pitch, baked and sluggish in the 40-degree heat, did the rest.
Jos Buttler, who has dug teams out of tougher holes before, did not attempt the rescue this time. Gujarat folded for 155.
The chase was largely academic from the sixth over onward. Kohli and Venkatesh Iyer put on 70 in the powerplay and after Rashid Khan briefly threatened with twin strikes, Kohli and Tim David quietly closed the door.
Kohli brought up his fifty off 25 balls, his first play-off half-century since the 2016 final, before cramping up and still finishing unbeaten.
RCB captain Rajat Patidar had said before the game that Sunday was a blank canvas. The painting, as it turned out, needed very little time to complete.