June 1, 2026 | Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
Eighteen years of hurt, one glorious first title in 2025, and now this — back-to-back IPL champions. Royal Challengers Bengaluru didn’t just defend their crown on Sunday night, they made a statement. Virat Kohli walked out in a final and produced the fastest fifty of his IPL career. A 15-year-old swept five individual awards in a single season for the first time in IPL history. And Gujarat Titans, for all their regular-season brilliance, never quite found their footing when it mattered most.
This is how it all went down.
The Match at a Glance
Gujarat Titans: 155/8 (20 overs) — Washington Sundar 50* (37), Rasikh Salam 3/27, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/29, Josh Hazlewood 2/37
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 161/5 (18 overs) — Virat Kohli 75* (42), Rashid Khan 2/25
Result: RCB won by 5 wickets (with 12 balls remaining)
Finishing off in style 🥳
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 31, 2026
And it’s none other than King Kohli 😎👑
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/Yz6K3q6w0X#TATAIPL | #Final | #TheFinalLeap | #RCBvGT pic.twitter.com/FZNGQ26gBs
How RCB Bowled GT Out of the Game
Rajat Patidar won the toss and chose to field — a decision that looked bold given GT’s top order had been the most consistent in the competition. Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan had together racked up 700-plus runs this season, and both walked out to bat like men who knew exactly how good they were.
They didn’t last long.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, all experience and craft, worked Sudharsan over with short-ball variations and sent him back cheaply. Josh Hazlewood had Gill miscuing a pull shot, top-edging straight to the fielder. Just like that, GT’s two most dangerous weapons were gone before the Powerplay ended. Jos Buttler came and went for 19, outfoxed by Krunal Pandya.
Washington Sundar deserves enormous credit for what came next. He held the innings together with a composed 50 off 37, scoring on the bad balls and keeping GT’s head above water. But the rest of the batting order never fired, and 155 was what they ended up with — a score that felt like par at best, and against this RCB chase lineup, probably not enough.
Kohli Turns Up When It Matters Most
It is a strange thing about Virat Kohli. After 18-odd years of playing cricket at the highest level, you’d expect the nerves and the hunger to dull a little. They clearly haven’t.
He and Venkatesh Iyer blew the chase open right from the start, putting on 62 runs inside five overs. Kohli was particularly savage against Kagiso Rabada — hitting a six and three fours in Rabada’s second over — and that early aggression meant the required rate never really climbed to a dangerous number.
Iyer took a nasty blow to the knee off a Mohammed Siraj delivery and struggled after that. Rashid Khan then turned the match with two wickets in a single over, and for a brief few minutes it felt like GT could sneak back into it. But Kohli was unaffected. He kept picking the right deliveries, kept rotating the strike, kept doing what he does in the big moments.
He finished 75 not out off 42 balls, with nine fours and three sixes. His fifty came off just 25 balls — the fastest of his IPL career. He sealed the win with an overhead six off Arshad Khan, the ball sailing into the stands as RCB reached 161/5 in the 18th over.
The scenes that followed were exactly what two years of pent-up RCB fan energy looks like when it finally has nowhere left to go but out.
“I’ve thought of this moment many times… wanting to hit the winning run. It’s a dream day for us.” — Virat Kohli, Player of the Match
Kohli ended the season with 675 runs overall — his fourth consecutive year crossing 600 in a single IPL. He finished fourth on the season’s run charts, behind only Sooryavanshi, Gill and Sudharsan. The POTM award in the final was his, without much debate.
RCB Join an Exclusive Club
With this win, RCB became only the third team in IPL history to successfully defend their title, joining Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. They’re also now the fourth franchise to have won more than one IPL trophy, alongside CSK, MI and KKR.
For a team that spent nearly two decades being the punchline of IPL conversations — the side with the biggest stars and the least silverware — that context is everything. This wasn’t an accident or a one-season fluke. RCB topped the table in the league stage, had the best bowling attack in the competition, and in every knockout game they won, they won decisively.
A dynasty might be too strong a word after just two titles. But the foundations are there.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: The Story of the Entire Season
If the final belonged to Kohli, the tournament belonged to a 15-year-old from Rajasthan Royals named Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
At the IPL 2026 awards ceremony, Sooryavanshi walked away with five individual honours — a record that has never been achieved by any player in a single IPL season. He won the Orange Cap (776 runs), the Most Valuable Player award (436.5 points), the Super Striker of the Season (strike rate of 237), the Most Sixes award (72 maximums all season), and the Emerging Player of the Season.
Five awards. One teenager. One season.
The numbers by themselves are hard to process. He scored 776 runs faster than almost everyone else in the competition. He hit 72 sixes — more than any other batter. His strike rate of 237 means that for every 100 balls he faced, he scored 237 runs. These are numbers that don’t belong to a 15-year-old in their first serious IPL campaign.
Maximum impact, maximum maturity 🫡
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 31, 2026
🗣️ Vaibhav Sooryavanshi after a season to remember ✨ #TATAIPL | #Final | #TheFinalLeap | #RCBvGT pic.twitter.com/PfktHKhQ8B
The full IPL 2026 awards list:
- Most Valuable Player: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (436.5 points)
- Orange Cap (Most Runs): Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (776 runs)
- Super Striker of Season: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (SR 237)
- Most Sixes: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (72)
- Emerging Player of Season: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
- Purple Cap (Most Wickets): Kagiso Rabada (29 wickets)
- Most Fours: Sai Sudharsan (75)
- Most Dot Balls: Mohammed Siraj (172)
- Catch of the Season: Manish Pandey (KKR) — Tim David’s catch at backward point
- ESPNcricinfo MVP: Virat Kohli (91.76 impact points)
And then there was the moment that the internet won’t forget for a while. During the awards ceremony, Ravi Shastri — clearly impressed by the teenager’s physical power — asked Sooryavanshi how much milk he drinks every day. Without missing a beat, Sooryavanshi replied: “Ab doodh nahi peeta hu.” (I don’t drink milk anymore.)
Shastri burst out laughing. The crowd did too. Five trophies and a one-liner. The kid’s got range.
What Went Wrong for Gujarat Titans
Shubman Gill didn’t shy away from the post-match assessment. He said poor Powerplay execution cost his team the game — both as a batting unit (losing two of their best players inside six overs) and as a bowling unit (giving away too many runs in the first six when RCB batted). He felt GT conceded 15-20 runs too many in that phase, and against a side with Kohli at the crease, that deficit proved impossible to recover.
Gill and Sudharsan had a remarkable season — becoming the first pair of batters from the same team to each score 700-plus runs in the same IPL edition. But on the biggest night, neither converted. It happens. The best sides find a way on those days. RCB did. GT didn’t.
The Bigger Picture
Two names will define IPL 2026 in the memory of anyone who watched it. One is a 37-year-old who keeps defying the logic of athletic decline. The other is a 15-year-old who showed up to his first real IPL season and treated it like it was just another game.
RCB fans have waited a long, long time for moments like these. Chris Gayle left. AB de Villiers left. Kohli stayed, rebuilt, and has now watched his team lift two consecutive trophies. Whether this becomes a dynasty or not, the 2026 season was as complete a performance as the franchise has ever produced.
The 2026 IPL belongs to RCB. The 2026 season belongs to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. And somewhere in the middle of all that history, Virat Kohli hit a six into the Ahmedabad night and reminded everyone — again — exactly who he is.