Patidar powers Bengaluru into second straight IPL final

A dropped catch can feel tiny in real time. In Dharamshala, it became a 73-run problem for Gujarat.

Rajat Patidar was on 20 when Gujarat Titans let him off twice in one over. By the end, he was unbeaten on 93, Royal Challengers Bengaluru had 254/5, and Qualifier 1 had turned into a red-and-gold procession.

RCB won by 92 runs and reached a second straight IPL final. For a fan base that has learnt patience the hard way, this was not just a win. It was a statement with a scorecard attached.

Patidar owns the big night

Patidar’s 93 not out did more than lift Bengaluru to a final. It put him beside MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma in a very select captaincy club.

He became only the fifth IPL captain to lead a team into consecutive finals. Dhoni did it across multiple Chennai runs. Rohit did it with Mumbai in 2019 and 2020. Patidar has now done it with a side that once seemed cursed in big matches.

That matters because Bengaluru teams have often lived on star power. This version looks different. The captain is not the loudest face in the room. Yet he is now shaping the biggest nights.

His batting carried the same message. Patidar reached 200 T20 sixes in just 105 innings. That made him the fastest Indian to the mark, beating Abhishek Sharma’s 125-innings record.

For context, this is not a minor stat. T20 six-hitting usually rewards openers, finishers, and players with long ropes. Patidar has done it while moving through roles and pressure points.

He hit 9 sixes in this innings alone. Only Shubman Gill has hit more in an IPL playoff innings, with 10. Patidar now has 24 playoff sixes, behind Suresh Raina, Dhoni and one more name on that elite list.

Bengaluru rewrites playoff records

RCB’s 254/5 is now the highest total in IPL playoff history. It passed Gujarat’s 233/3 against Mumbai in Ahmedabad in 2023.

That number tells only half the story. Bengaluru struck 38 boundaries, the most by any team in an IPL playoff match. They kept finding the rope often enough to make a strong attack look short of answers.

The powerplay set the tone. RCB reached 76/1 in the first 6 overs, the fourth-highest playoff powerplay score. When a team starts like that, the middle overs become a test of nerve for the bowlers.

Gujarat briefly clawed back through Jason Holder. In the ninth over, he removed Virat Kohli for 43 and Devdutt Padikkal for 30 within 3 balls. For a moment, the match had tension again.

Then came Patidar’s escape in the 14th over. First, a top edge fell between Jos Buttler and Kulwant Khejroliya. Then Kagiso Rabada dropped a simpler chance at deep midwicket.

Patidar was on 20. Gujarat never really recovered from that miss.

By the time Kulwant Khejroliya conceded 28 runs in the 15th over, the game had changed shape. It became the second-costliest over in IPL playoff history.

Gujarat unravels under pressure

A chase of 255 in a playoff is not a chase. It is a dare.

Gujarat needed a clean start, calm heads, and one batter to play a freak innings. Instead, their chase picked up early scars.

Sai Sudharsan fell hit wicket in a strange moment. He cut a short ball for four, but his bat slipped and hit the stumps. In playoff cricket, that kind of dismissal can drain a dressing room quickly.

Rasikh then produced a rare double-wicket maiden in the powerplay. He removed Nishant Sindhu with a return catch and then had Holder caught at mid-on. No runs came from the over.

That over did not just take wickets. It killed time, momentum, and belief.

RCB’s bowlers also added their own season-long records. Kagiso Rabada took his 18th powerplay wicket of the season, going past Mohammed Shami’s 2023 mark of 17.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up 2 wickets and moved to 26 for the season. That drew him level with Wanindu Hasaranga’s 2022 tally for Bengaluru. Only Harshal Patel, with 32 in 2021, has more for RCB in one season.

For Gujarat, the lesson was old and brutal. Dropped catches hurt more in knockouts. Soft dismissals hurt even more. Against a side scoring at this speed, both can finish the night before the 10th over.

RCB’s fifth final feels different

Bengaluru have now reached the IPL final 5 times, in 2009, 2011, 2016, 2025 and 2026. Only Chennai and Mumbai have been there more often.

That stat will stir every old memory for RCB supporters. The near-misses. The monster batting seasons. The finals that slipped away. The familiar joke that the team always entertains, but never completes the job.

This time, the mood has a different weight. RCB did not sneak through. They smashed the playoff scoring record and won by 92 runs. It was the second-biggest playoff win by runs, behind Rajasthan’s 105-run win over Delhi in 2008.

The crowd had its own little stories too. A young fan held up a poster asking Kohli to remember his name because he wanted to play for RCB one day. That is what this team does to people. It turns heartbreak into inheritance.

There was also the familiar Kohli theatre. When Holder bowled him, Kohli stood at the crease for a few seconds, looking at his bat. In the stands, Anushka Sharma covered her face.

But for once, Kohli’s wicket did not define RCB’s night. That may be the biggest shift of all.

Bengaluru’s final place now rests on a wider base. Patidar has grown into a captain who can win the biggest overs. The bowling has wicket-takers in useful phases. The batting can still explode after early damage.

The final will bring its own pressure, and RCB know better than most that finals do not reward history. They reward the cleaner 40 overs. But for ordinary fans who have waited through years of jokes and sighs, this run offers something rare. Not blind hope, but evidence. This Bengaluru side has stopped looking like a story about what might go wrong. It now looks like a team ready to ask what can finally go right.