IPL 2026: Sai Sudharsan’s Century In Vain As RCB Outclass GT In 5-Wicket Win

RCB vs GT IPL 2026: Royal Challengers Bengaluru's star batters, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal, scored match-winning knocks of 81 and 55 runs. Their performances helped the team defeat the Gujarat Titans by five wickets at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday. Young opener Sai Sudharsan smashed a brilliant century in 58 balls.

After Devdutt Padikkal and Kohli had stitched a partnership of 115 runs for the second wicket, the Rajat Patidar-led side's chase of 206 runs went quiet smoothly, as they chased it in 18.5 overs and have now jumped to the second positiom in the points table. 

Both Kohli and Padikkal took the GT bowlers to the cleaners post the host had suffered an early blow as opener Jacob Bethell fell cheaply while batting aggressively as to what their opponents did by scoring cautiosuly during the first innings. 

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Kohli, who was dropped on the first ball of his innings by Washington Sundar during Mohammed Siraj's over, analysed the surface brilliantly and faced Prasidh Krishna and Kagiso Rabada quiet easily. 

Prasidh had conceded two fours whereas Rabada was smacked for a six and Rashid Khan, who is Kohli's arch-nemesis, was smacked for a six towards mid-wicket as Kohli brought up his half-cenytury off 30 balls. 

On the other hand, Devdutt was equally brilliant as he smashed his fellow Karnataka teamate Prasidh for a few sixes and Rashid too was hit for one six and helped Padikkal score his fifty off just 20 balls. 

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It took a peach from Rashid to castle Devdutt, and Kohli, who till then read the bounce to perfection, ironically dragged a Jason Holder lifter on to his stumps.

It pushed RCB to a wobbly period as they lost skipper Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma as well, slipping to 173 for five.

But Krunal Pandya (23, 12b) and Tim David (10) carried them past the target from that point, as RCB signed off from their home venue with a victory. This was their fourth win at Chinnaswamy from five engagements this season.

Earlier, Sudharsan produced a magnificent 100 that was an anti-thesis of T20 batting, but still strong enough to carry Gujarat to a competitive 205 for three.

In fact, the first 12.4 overs of the Titans' innings was an anti-thesis of T20 batting, where the former champions proved that runs can be made in this format without hitting the ball in anger.

Sudharsan's 58-ball knock, his third hundred in the IPL, was the cornerstone in GT's trend-defying effort with the bat.

The left-hander totally dominated the 128-run alliance with his opening partner and captain Shubman Gill (32, 24b). Sudharsan consumed 29 balls in the Power Play segment against the latter's seven.

The 24-year-old Tamil Nadu batter, who also became the fastest to score 2000 IPL runs along his innings, made 46 runs in Power Play, and then reached fifty off 33 balls in style, clobbering Romario Shepherd for a six.

The next fifty came at a faster clip -- 24 balls -- and it was a phase where he nullified RCB's spin duo Krunal and Suyash Sharma.

Krunal tried his trademark bouncer to keep Sudharsan quiet, but the batter was equal to the task, upper cutting it over backward point for a six.

He followed that up with a boundary and a swept six off the same bowler as Patidar had to check for different options.

Gill's dismissal did not alter the course of the match much, as Sudharsan, who was dropped on 91 by Suyash off his bowling, bled the RCB bowling silently.

Sudharsan got to his hundred with a single off Suyah but could not build on it further, giving a rather tame return catch to Josh Hazlewood.

He fell at an individual score of 100, precisely the total they made against Mumbai Indians in a 99-run mauling a few days back.

But his departure, though, helped RCB pull back a bit in the death overs.

In the overs between 17 -- GT were 174 for two at that stage -- and 20, the Titans could garner only 31 runs, even that materialised because of Holder's cameo (23 not out, 10b).