IMAGE: Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Virat Kohli lifts the trophy as he celebrates with teammates after winning the Indian Premier League 2026. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

IMAGE: Royal Challengers Bengaluru players celebrate winning the Indian Premier League 2026 title on Sunday. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

Virat Kohli produced an explosive knock as Royal Challengers Bengaluru secured a five-wicket win over Gujarat Titans to retain their Indian Premier League title on Sunday.

Bengaluru, who ended a 17-season drought by winning their maiden IPL title last year, carried that momentum into this season and chased down 156 with ease in 18 overs.

IMAGE: Royal Challengers Bengaluru players celebrate with the coaching staff as Tim David dunks water on coach Andrew Flower as batting coach Dinesh Karthik looks on.. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

Put into bat, Gujarat never found their footing against Bengaluru's incisive bowling, losing their in-form openers in the powerplay and managing only 155-8 at a packed Narendra Modi Stadium awash in red in support of the defending champions.

Bengaluru made light work of the chase, cruising through without any real alarm as Kohli and Venkatesh Iyer (32 off 16) set the tone early, helping the team post 70-2 in the powerplay.

IMAGE: RCB players celebrate with Virat Kohli. Photograph: BCCI

Kohli, famously dubbed the 'chase master', tore into the attack with an unbeaten 75 off 42 balls, including three sixes and nine fours, also bringing up his fastest IPL fifty to take his tally to 68 half-centuries and nine hundreds.

IMAGE: Krunal Pandya kisses the trophy. Photograph: BCCI

'Such is the demand of the sport today. You have these super young players pushing you all the time and asking you to change your game and up the ante,' said Kohli after being named player-of-the-match.

'It's an exciting situation because it gives you something to improve on, something to work towards. And I just take a lot of pride in getting better and just trying to figure out areas where I can improve.'

IMAGE: Virat Kohli celebrates on scoring the winning runs. Photograph: BCCI