Gill outshines Sooryavanshi to guide GT to IPL 2026 final

The match referee Prakash Bhatt did not hear Riyan Parag's call, which meant Shubman Gill had to toss the coin again. Parag called 'Heads' loudly the second time, it landed heads, and he promptly opted to bat. A disappointed Gill said he would have done the same had the referee heard the call properly the first time. From Gujarat Titans' perspective, they were glad he didn't.

For the third time in four innings, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi came up with an entertaining innings before getting out in the 90s. His knock, on a Mullanpur pitch that wasn't the easiest for batters in the first innings, set up Rajasthan Royals' total of 214 for 6 in the Qualifier 2 match. But it wasn't sufficient, especially with the conditions improving for batting as the match progressed. Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan put on a 167-run stand, with the GT captain scoring his fifth IPL century as the Titans got home with eight deliveries to spare. They registered their first successful 210-plus chase in the IPL, and also achieved the highest target in the playoffs stage, to book a finals date with Royal Challengers Bengaluru.

GT's plan for the RR batters was clear: bowl short. Yashasvi Jaiswal went for a pull off Mohammed Siraj but ended up miscuing it. Dhruv Jurel, after striking a four off Kagiso Rabada, attempted to drive a delivery that wasn't full enough and got a leading edge. At the end of the second over, Sooryavanshi had only faced three deliveries, with GT calling the shots. But things changed soon enough as the teenager unleashed his counterattack.

It started with three fours off Siraj in a 21-run over, followed by a four and a straight six off Rabada. Ravindra Jadeja, promoted to No.4, also got a couple of boundaries as RR raced to 50 in 4.3 overs. Siraj, meanwhile, was struggling with his shoulder and left the field after the fifth over, soon after conceding a boundary to Sooryavanshi. Prasidh Krishna also bowled short and was hit for a six and two fours by Jadeja.

Jadeja raced to 34 off 19, outpacing Sooryavanshi, before retiring hurt with an elbow issue ahead of the ninth over. Riyan Parag and Sooryavanshi, however, continued positively, striking a couple of sixes in Rashid Khan's first over as RR brought up the 100 in the ninth. Parag fell to Jason Holder, handing a catch to deep midwicket, but there was a big miss in the next over as Sai Sudharsan went late to the ball and dropped a top edge from Sooryavanshi, denying Prasidh the wicket.

Holder, meanwhile, was bowling a tight spell and also dismissed Dasun Shanaka with a short delivery. Jofra Archer came in next, struck a six off Prasidh, and fell soon after, as GT kept pegging RR back. Sooryavanshi, who was with a seventh batting partner for the first time - he had only batted with four others previously - brought up his slowest fifty, off 31 balls. Jadeja came back to resume his partnership with Sooryavanshi, who hit a six over wide long off in a Rabada over and was then struck on the side of his helmet grille while trying to pull.

After the hit on his helmet, Sooryavanshi didn't take long to get going again. Even as GT continued bowling short, he pulled Siraj for a six and struck two fours and a six off Holder to take RR past 150 in the 16th over. Two more sixes off Washington Sundar followed as he brought up another fifty-run stand with Jadeja.

However, another disappointment was in store for Sooryavanshi as he missed out on a three-figure score yet again, falling four short of it as an attempted upper cut off Rabada did not get him the desired result, just like the previous game. But his dismissal did not deny a flourishing finish for RR, thanks to Donovan Ferreira. After two fours off Prasidh in the 19th over, he struck four sixes in the final over off Rashid to push RR past the 210 mark, which looked like a good total on a pitch that was a bit challenging for the batters.

It's not often that GT don't get off to a good start, and they proved the game against RCB was an anomaly. The tone was set in the opening over as Sudharsan and Gill struck two fours apiece off Archer, and the boundaries continued as GT raced to 52 in four overs, their joint-fastest team fifty, equalling four other occasions. Meanwhile, Sudharsan had a lucky break on 14 trying a pull off Nandre Burger as Ferreira put down the catch. Brijesh Sharma bowled a seven-run over while Tushar Deshpande, the impact player, was hit for two fours by Sudharsan in the sixth over as the Titans finished one short of what the Royals had managed in the Powerplay.

Things didn't slow down even after the field spread, as Gill and Sudharsan kept finding the boundaries to add to their partnership. Gill reached a 30-ball fifty with a six and a four off Deshpande in the ninth over, by which time he and Sudharsan had already put together their eighth century partnership in the IPL. Jadeja was taken to the cleaners as well by Gill, who hit two sixes and a four to power GT to 127 for 0 at the halfway stage of the innings, 24 more than what RR had managed at that point. Sudharsan then brought up a 26-ball fifty with a six off Yash Raj Punja before Gill wrapped up the over with two fours, and both batters also crossed 700 runs in the season. GT went past 150 in the 12th over, with Gill entering the 90s after two fours off Burger.

For the second time in as many games, Sudharsan was out hit-wicket, ending a mammoth partnership that had taken GT closer to a spot in the final. It was a low full toss from Brijesh, which Sudharsan sliced away to the fence, but while completing the shot he lost the grip of his bat again and this time, it landed directly onto the stumps. This was the third time he was out hit-wicket in the IPL, joint most alongside Andre Russell and Shoaib Malik in T20 cricket. GT, meanwhile, were on track, needing 48 off 43.

It was only the 14th over when Gill came down the track and went inside out over cover for a four off Jadeja, bringing up the fastest T20 hundred for GT, in 47 balls - going past his own 49-ball effort vs MI in the 2023 Qualifier 2. In the process, he also became the first to register multiple hundreds in the IPL playoffs, and the first captain to get to three-figures in the playoffs. Gill eventually fell to Archer, trapped leg-before, with GT needing 33 off 30 at that stage. Sundar struck a four and a six off Archer before getting out to Burger, with GT needing 14 off 17 at that time. Rahul Tewatia finished it off with an unbeaten 17 off 9, hitting two fours and a six off Brijesh in the 19th over.

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