Royal Challengers Bengaluru cruised to their second consecutive IPL final, their fifth in all, with a 92-run demolition of Gujarat Titans in Dharamsala. After Rajat Patidar’s unbeaten 93 set up RCB’s mammoth total of 254, the pacers wreaked havoc and reduced GT to rubble in the Powerplay, turning this Qualifier 1 clash into a one-sided encounter, notwithstanding Rahul Tewatia’s resistance with the bat.
Rajat Patidar - The one man army
RCB were asked to bat first and the first shot of the match was a statement of intent from Venkatesh Iyer, who punched Mohammed Siraj through the covers off the very first ball. He picked up two more boundaries although Kagiso Rabada troubled Virat Kohli in the second over with more bounce on offer from his end. Venkatesh ramped Rabada for a six but he fell as he got a top-edge off a short ball, Shubman Gill taking a good catch at mid-off.
RCB never toned down on their intent though as Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal both got going with lofts over mid-off. While Kohli struggled to get his timing right – underlined by a control percentage of 60 during his stay – Padikkal accessed both sides of the ground for boundaries, with the lightning-quick outfield coming to the batters’ aid. RCB raced to 50 in the first four overs, forcing Gill to use a bowler not named Siraj or Rabada in the Powerplay for the first time in eight games. An overthrow which traveled to the fence summed up GT’s frustrations in the Powerplay and even as Rabada cut Kohli in half again in the sixth over, the latter hooked one over the keeper’s head for six as RCB piled up the runs early on.
Rashid Khan came on in the eighth over, which marked the first one without a boundary until then. Jason Holder then revived memories of Kohli’s dismissal in Bengaluru earlier in the season as the latter hacked one across the line and played on off the inside edge. Two deliveries later, Padikkal edged behind and took a review with him as GT started to pull things back. RCB managed just 23 runs in the four overs that followed the Powerplay, with neither Patidar nor Krunal Pandya getting their timing right, even as the odd boundary kept coming with Krunal’s ramp off Prasidh Krishna standing out. The turning point came in the 14th over as Rabada shelled a chance at deep mid-wicket, shortly after Patidar got away with a leading edge that landed in the deep third region.
Kulwant Khejroliya was a surprising inclusion for his first game of the season and while he started with a three-run over, the wheels came off in the 15th. A beamer that was put away for four, a wide and a misfield off the free hits and a front-foot no ball headlined a horror over, which Patidar wrapped up with fours on either side of a six. 28 runs came off that, swinging momentum firmly in favor of RCB before Rashid, who was presumably shielded from Patidar, travelled for three sixes immediately after. GT looked lost for answers even as Krunal fell, with Patidar whipping up a 21-ball fifty with a six. The shot of the innings saw him launch a back of a length delivery off Rabada nonchalantly over cover as RCB rocketed past 200 in the 16th over.
Prasidh nailed his yorkers and cleaned up Tim David but there was no stopping Patidar, who handed the crowd catching practice with three more sixes across the last two overs. Jitesh Sharma chipped in with a six and a four himself as Siraj traveled for 21 in the 19th over and Prasidh, 20 in the last. 114 runs and 10 sixes off the last six overs underlined the carnage, with RCB recording the highest playoff score in the league’s history.
GT's batting order chokes miserably
Sai Sudharsan hit the first two balls of the chase to the fence, recreating what Venkatesh did for RCB. But misfortune hit the Orange Cap holder in the third over as he creamed a cut to the fence, only for his bat to slip out of his hands on his follow-through before deflecting onto the stumps off the pitch. Nothing could have poetically summed up the nightmare that the Titans were to endure more than this. Shubman Gill handed Bhuvneshwar Kumar his 25th wicket of the season as he swung across the line for the ball to crash into his stumps. Jos Buttler was then the lone man standing between RCB and a second successive final and he began in imperious fashion, smashing a four and a six off Bhuvneshwar before following it up with more off Josh Hazlewood. The Aussie cleverly disguised a knuckle ball to bowl Buttler, sealing the game for all practical purposes.
GT would go on to lose two more in the Powerplay as Rasikh Salam Dar had Nishant Sindhu out caught and bowled, before Holder hacked one to mid-on right after Kohli missed a run out at the striker’s end. That Rahul Tewatia, who had little to do with the bat all season, walked out to face the music in the Powerplay told a story.
After the Powerplay, GT went through the motions, with Tewatia enduring a laborious start to his knock. Washington Sundar upper-cut a Jacob Duffy delivery to deep third, while the Titans mustered 70 in the first 10 overs – six fewer than what RCB managed in the Powerplay alone. Such was RCB’s dominance that they did not even activate their Impact Sub until the start of the 12th over. Rabada picked up a couple of boundaries before heaving a Krunal bouncer to Kohli at long on. Romario Shepherd, RCB’s impact sub, endured another tough outing as Tewatia picked up pace with an array of boundaries, typically accessing his fancied square leg region. He scooped Hazlewood before swiping one for a six, before using the pace on the ball deftly for a boundary.
A similar stroke raised his fifty, with a short-arm jab behind square following soon after. It looked as though GT would bat out their 20 overs but fittingly, it was Patidar who plucked an excellent catch running back at cover to end Tewatia’s resistance at 68. The game did go into the final over before Siraj swung the ball a long way up as Tim David charged in from long off and completed a stunning sliding catch to seal RCB’s ticket to the final.
SCORECARD: Royal Challengers Bengaluru 254/5 in 20 overs [Rajat Patidar 93* (33), Virat Kohli 43 (25), Krunal Pandya 43 (28); Jason Holder 2-39] beat Gujarat Titans 162 all out in 19.3 overs [Rahul Tewatia 68 (43), Jos Buttler 29 (11); Jacob Duffy 3-39, Rasikh Salam Dar 2-24, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2-28] by 92 runs.