It took them 18 years to win their first title, but Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) took no time in becoming only the third team to successfully defend it. Their seam bowlers made superb use of a slightly sticky surface after Rajat Patidar won the toss, restricting Gujarat Titans (GT), who were in their third final in five years of their existence, to 155, the exact same score RCB managed in the league match against the seam team in the same ground on the same pitch No. 6 bang in the middle of the square.

Josh Hazelwood who has never lost a T20 or ODI final, set the tone with the wicket of Shubman Gill in his first over. Bhuveneshwar Kumar momentarily reclaimed the purple cap with two wickets, and Rasikh Salam capped off his best IPL with three to take his tally for the year to 19. Last final’s Player of the match, Krunal Pandya, who won his fifth IPL final out of five, also chipped in with the big wicket of Jos Buttler in his analysis of 4-0-23-1. He is now behind only Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu in number of titles, and is also the first player to successfully defend a title with two different teams.

Only three out of 26 scores under 190 in a full match had been defended successfully this IPL. With the ball still nibbling around, the best attack in the tournament would have thought they had a chance, but amid falling wickets, Virat Kohli chose this final to hit his fastest IPL fifty and his highest playoff score, leading a five-wicket win with two overs to spare.

Get the openers

Gill and B Sai Sudharsan came into the final as the only pair of batters from the same team to have scored 700 or more runs in the same IPL. However, they were up against bowlers that have troubled them in the past. A cagey start ensued, Gill survived the Bhuvneshwar over, but Hazlewood had him top-edging his signature short-arm pull.

GT promoted Nishant Sindhu to No. 3 to protect Buttler from Bhuvneshwar, but the wily bowler made sure Buttler had to come out as he took out Sudharsan in his second over. He first beat Sudharsan on the charge with a bouncer before continuing with another, this one taking the toe end on the ramp. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, in attendance in Ahmedabad, was now assured of the orange cap. This was only the fourth time this IPL that both the GT owners had been dismissed inside the powerplay, three of them against RCB.

Middle-overs choke

Seeing some grip from the pitch and conventional, subdued batters at the wicket, Krunal shelved all his fancy change-ups and bowled only length. His first three overs yielded zero boundaries. Salam was equally miserly at the other end, just bowling good length and enjoying the slight variations from the surface. One of those had Sindhu caught at long-on.

When Krunal started his final over, they had gone 37 legal deliveries without a boundary. Krunal expected the frustrated Buttler to try something, saw him coming and fired in a wide yorker for a spectacular stumping by Jitesh Sharma.

Another promotion followed with Arshad Khan walking in and hitting the fourth ball of the 13th over for a six, only one ball quicker than the longest it has taken a team to hit a six in an IPL final.

No let-up from RCB

Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar and Salam offered no freebies in the death overs. Every time GT thought they could build some momentum, one of the quicks jolted them with a wicket. Hazlewood got Arshad, Bhuvneshwar made it 28 wickets for the season with Jason Holder’s scalp, and Salam took out Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan in the end. Only Jacob Duffy went wicketless, but he, too, nearly had Washington Sundar,  who went on from the reprieve to score a fighting 37-ball 50.

The high-octane chase

Like he did in the 2024 final with a 50 at two runs a ball, Venkatesh Iyer got the middling chase to a flying start. Not that he needed extra licence, but an injury to the inside of the knee in the first over of the chase left him no option but to hit out. He hit out against Rabada in his first over, and by the time Mohammed Siraj got him out for 32 off 16, he had set RCB on their way.

While Venkatesh might have added reason to hit out, Kohli lashed out at Rabada with ferocity that was only foretold by a season in which he has matched some of the younger, more cutting-edge T20 batters. Of  the six batters to have scored 600 or more this IPL, only Sooryavanshi and Ishan Kishan have done so quicker than his 675 at 165.84.

As is often expected of Kohli, he was pumped up when he took on his great rival Rabada, hitting a spectacular six and three fours in Rabada’s second. Rattled bowlers lost their line against Kohli, whose first run on the off side was his 39th. By that time, Rabada had taken back his purple cap with Devdutt Padikkal’s wicket and Rashid Khan would soon take two in his first over, but the asking rate was already under a run a ball.

Only an injury to Kohli slowed down RCB’s march to the title, but Kohli finished it off in style with a four and a six off the last two balls of the 18th over.

Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 161 for 5 in 18 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 32, Virat Kohli 75*, Rajat Patidar 15, Tim David 24, Jitesh Sharma  11*; Mohammed Siraj 1-36, Kagiso Rabada 1-44,  Rashid Khan 2-25, Arshad Khan 1-32) beat Gujarat Titans 155 for 8 in 20 overs (Sai Sudarshan 12, Shubman Gill 10, Nishant Sindhu 20, Jos Buttler 19, Washington Sundar 50*, Arshad Khan 15; Rasikh Salam 3-27, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2-29, Josh Hazelwood 2-37, Krunal Pandya 1-23) by five wickets

[Cricinfo]