Rajasthan Royals (RR) pulled off a dramatic six-run victory over Gujarat Titans (GT) in their IPL 2026 fixture at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Saturday (April 4).
Opting to bat first, the Royals racked up 210/6 in their allotted 20 overs, led by Dhruv Jurel's 42-ball 75 and Yashasvi Jaiswal's 55 off 36.
The hosts were missing regular captain Shubman Gill due to a muscle spasm, but Sai Sudharsan's 73 off 44 kept them alive in the chase. However, RR leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi triggered a collapse with four wickets in the middle overs, reducing GT to 161/7.
While Rashid Khan (24 off 16) and Kagiso Rabada (23* off 16) staged a fightback, they failed to take the Titans over the line. Jofra Archer and Tushar Deshpande executed a death-bowling masterclass for RR, defending 15 runs in the last two overs.
Speaking during the post-match presentation, RR skipper Riyan Parag credited Jurel for the decision to bowl Archer in the penultimate over, which went for just 4 runs and left GT needing 11 runs from the last 6 balls.
Entrusted with the final over, Deshpande nailed four consecutive yorkers to Rashid. Despite starting with a wide, he conceded only 4 runs and dismissed Rashid—caught by Archer in the deep—to seal the win.
"It was just incredible I think. I took a chance, thinking that let's just go full and fast. And the way the boys delivered, you can see as my voice is like cracking up, I was just shouting. I was just so excited over the fact they executed as they wanted, and it's just insane,” Parag said.
“(On having options to bowl the 19th and 20th over) I was actually going to switch up the order, so credit to Dhruv Jurel for that. He asked me to go Jofra on the 19th. So the plan was, because it was like a three-ball difference, it was 15 off 12. I just wanted to like take a chance, just go fast, as fast as possible, as aggressive as possible. If it comes out, it comes out and it looks really good. If it doesn't, I'll just be sad and go again next time,” he added.
Parag mentioned that the team management had not previously done justice to Dhruv Jurel's talent by batting him low, and praised his performance after being promoted to No. 3.
“(On Jurel) Yeah, I think we've not done a lot of justice to the talent that he possesses. He's done the hard job. He's batted at six and seven. But now that we saw, we had an opportunity at number three, I was the first one to say he has got to bat number three and he just showed us why he can. So hopefully this is the start for him and he goes on to get like 700, 800 runs and wins us the championship,” the captain remarked.
Rajasthan Royals moved to the top of the IPL 2026 points table after being Gujarat Titans, marking two wins from two games.
“(On going two in two) Yeah, I mean, we are gonna celebrate tonight. Forget about it as soon as the sun comes up and then focus on Guwahati and what we can do against Mumbai,” Parag concluded.
