Gujarat Titans have once again made it to the finals of IPL. Gujarat Titans, captained by Shubman Gill, defeated Rajasthan Royals by 7 wickets in a spectacular fashion in the second qualifier of IPL 2026. With this, the team made it to the finals for the third time in 5 seasons, where it will face the current champion Royal Challengers Bangalore. Captain Gill himself gave this victory to Gujarat, who while chasing the target of 215 runs, scored a explosive century and played an innings of 103 runs. This inning overshadowed Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s innings of 96 runs and ended Rajasthan’s brilliant journey.
Vaibhav rained again but could not score a century
After losing the toss in the eliminator match at this ground in New Chandigarh, Rajasthan batted first and won by scoring more than 200. This time Rajasthan captain Riyan Parag won the toss and chose to bat first but the team lost the wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag in the first two overs. In such a situation, the team seemed under pressure. But Vaibhav Suryavanshi along with Ravindra Jadeja (45 not out) took charge of the team. Vaibhav was not seen in his explosive style but still his runs were coming faster than other batsmen.
Vaibhav scored his fifth half-century this season but for the second consecutive match, he got out after coming close to his century. This time too he was caught at third man and was out after scoring 96 runs in 47 balls. In the last over, Donovan Ferreira hit 4 sixes on Rashid Khan and scored unbeaten 38 runs in just 11 balls, taking the team to 214 runs. Jason Holder and Kagiso Rabada took 2-2 wickets for Gujarat.
One mistake of Rajasthan, Gill-Sudarshan punished
Gujarat had never achieved a target of more than 210 runs in IPL before. The team had to face defeat in all 7 such matches. In such a situation, the team needed amazing batting and a little luck. The opening pair of captain Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan once again gave a strong start to the team. But then Donovan Ferreira dropped the catch of Sai Sudarshan, when he was on just 14 runs. This one mistake ultimately proved costly for Rajasthan and it had to suffer the consequences by losing its ticket to the finals.
Sudarshan completed his half-century in just 26 balls and Gill completed his half-century in 30 balls, not only making a century partnership but also laid the foundation of victory for the team. There was a partnership of 167 runs between the two in just 13 overs, which eliminated Rajasthan from the match. Although Sudarshan (58) was hit for the second consecutive match, captain Gill took the team closer to victory by scoring his second century in the playoff matches. Gill scored 104 runs in just 53 balls. Ultimately, Jos Buttler, Washington Sundar and Rahul Tewatia took the team to the target in just 18.4 overs.
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