Two days ago, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was dismissed for 97 in the eliminator against SRH. Three runs short of a hundred. On Friday night in the qualifier 2 against Gujarat Titans, he scored 96. Four runs short.
In any other season, those two innings would be the story of the entire tournament. In IPL 2026, they were not enough to win either match.
Gujarat Titans beat Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets at New Chandigarh and will face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL 2026 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Sooryavanshi’s IPL 2026 ended on 776 runs at a strike rate of 237.3. Nobody in the history of T20 tournaments has had a season like it. He just could not carry his team over the line when it mattered most.
Sooryavanshi’s Flight
RR won the toss and batted. Both teams wanted to bat first on a used pitch in a knockout game, and Riyan Parag got his wish.
What followed was the Sooryavanshi form, continuing from the eliminator against the SRH. But today is not the 29-ball version from Wednesday, nor the 36-ball hundred from April. From his slowest fifty of the season, still only 31 balls, he built his way to 96 off 47 before being caught at deep third off a Kagiso Rabada bouncer. He had tried the ramp and the uppercut in the Eliminator and avoided it because of the deep third fielder. This time he played the shot, the ball got big on him, and he could only edge it to the same position. The shots left jaws on the floor again. The result was the same as two nights ago.
Jason Holder took 2 for 27, and Kagiso Rabada took 2 for 35 as RR lost wickets at regular intervals after Sooryavanshi’s dismissal. Ravindra Jadeja, coming in at number four despite carrying an injury, scored an unbeaten 45 off 35 balls, and Donovan Ferreira blasted 38 not out off just 11 balls in the final over to add an unbeaten 42-run stand for the seventh wicket. RR finished on 214 for 6. It was a competitive total, and it needed a GT side missing their usual composure to defend it.
The duo strike again
Gill and Sudharsan, arguably if not the best then among the best openers this season (include the previous season too), once again proved their worth. Jofra Archer ran in to bowl the first over and it was not his evening from the first ball. He offered width to Sai Sudharsan twice and slipped down the pads of Gill twice. Nineteen runs came off the first over without GT taking a single risk. That set the tone for everything that followed.
Gill and Sudharsan followed Sooryavanshi into the 700s for the season but in their own style, taking fewer risks, finding gaps, and making the chase look like a training session rather than a knockout match. GT ended the powerplay at 69 without loss. Gill brought up his half-century in 30 balls and steadily kept going.
Gill’s century was the fastest ever by a GT player and the century partnership between him and Sudharsan was a world-record 11th century stand between the same opening pair in T20 cricket. GT executed the second-highest successful chase in any knockout or playoff match in all T20 cricket.
Sudharsan scored 58 before being dismissed bizarrely, being hit wicket again, twice in two games, but by that point the game was beyond RR. GT crossed the line in 18.4 overs, winning by seven wickets with eight balls to spare. Gill was named Player of the Match. After the game he said simply, “We are going to Ahmedabad. Playing a final at home is a special feeling. We owe RCB one.”
The Difference Between the Two Teams
The match report from Cricinfo put it cleanly: the difference between the sides was just that. Sooryavanshi was one. Gill and Sudharsan were two. RR played an extraordinary tournament. They overcame a weak middle order, an injury to Jadeja at number four, and conditions that suited the bowling attack they were facing. They had Archer, one of the best pace bowlers in the world. They had Jaiswal. They had a 15-year-old who produced two of the greatest innings in IPL playoff history back-to-back and still ended up on the losing side this time. Sometimes luck isn’t favorable, but that is the kind of game cricket is.
The problem was simple. When Sooryavanshi got out, RR had nowhere to go. GT never had that problem. When one fell, another took over.
What the Final Looks Like
GT will face RCB in the IPL 2026 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. It is a rematch of Qualifier 1, which RCB won by 92 runs, the highest margin of victory in IPL playoff history. GT now has home conditions on their side. They have Gill in the form of his life. And they have a score to settle, waiting for their second title.
RCB has Patidar, Kohli, Bhuvneshwar, and the momentum of a team that has not lost a knockout game all season, eyeing consecutive IPL titles, a feat only achieved by Chennai and Mumbai previously.
One stadium that has seen both of them win their first title from within its walls. A ground with hundreds of thousands of fans. A ground where both claimed their first throne awaits this clash. A ground with enough tales to fill a library and enough space for one more story. On Sunday, either RCB writes the chapter that belongs only to them or GT reclaims a ground that still remembers their name from 2022. Either way, someone goes home with everything.
Sunday in Ahmedabad.
