Gujarat Titans (GT) suffered a five-wicket defeat in the IPL 2026 final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday (May 31).
Put to bat first, GT posted 155/8 on the board, with Washington Sundar (50* off 37 balls) and Nishant Sindhu (20 off 18 balls) being the only batters to touch the 20-run mark.
Rasikh Salam Dar starred with figures of 3/27 for RCB, while veteran pacers Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up two wickets each to restrict GT to 155/8.
In reply, RCB rode on Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 75 off 42 balls to overhaul the target with two overs to spare, securing their second consecutive IPL title.
Reflecting on the loss, GT skipper Shubman Gill stated that a total of 180-190 runs would have been competitive and could have changed the outcome of the match.
While the pitch offered a little movement in the first 3-4 overs, Gill didn't blame the surface. He noted that losing early wickets caused the team to lose momentum in the middle overs.
"(On what could have been a winning total) I think if we would have gotten close to 180, 190, it would have been a good match," Gill said at the post-match presentation.
"(On whether the surface was slow or two-paced) Honestly, not that much. You know, maybe a little bit. We have seen whenever we are playing, in the first three or four overs there is a little bit of movement for the fast bowlers. We lost a couple of early wickets and then we kind of lost the momentum in the middle; we couldn’t really get going. But then we knew we are playing the finals. 150, 160, if we get a couple of early wickets in the powerplay, we are always in the game," he added.
Gill felt his bowlers gave it their all defending 156, but RCB's powerplay start was 15-20 runs too many.
"(On not getting wickets early enough in the chase) Yeah, I think 15-20 runs too many in the powerplay. Had we restricted them to around 50-55 runs, we still would have had a chance. But I think they got away a little bit in the powerplay," the captain said.
Despite the loss in the final, Shubman Gill expressed immense pride in how the team fought back from losing their first two games. He emphasized that as a group, GT operated with a mindset of continuous improvement, analyzing even the smallest 5% factors to elevate their game.
"I think we were one of the best bowling sides in the tournament. The way after we lost the first two games - we came back in the tournament after losing the first couple of games - the way we kept talking, kept pushing ourselves, kept challenging ourselves in different areas, and kept improving those 5 percent factors," Gill remarked.
"(On the overall campaign) Yeah, definitely, very happy. We couldn’t get over the line, but there are always things that you could improve on. And even if we had won the trophy, there were still things that we felt as a group that we needed to work on," he concluded.
