Coming for you: Rajat Patidar sounds warning as RCB storm into IPL final

“We’re coming for you,” Rajat Patidar made abundantly clear in his message after Royal Challengers Bengaluru stormed into the Indian Premier League final on Tuesday 26 May.

Patidar played one of the more realistic knocks in the IPL playoffs – 93* off 33 balls – to send Gujarat to the final of the tournament. The RCB captain, who recently returned from injury, lit up the last five overs of the first innings to take RCB to their highest ever score in the IPL playoffs: 254/5.

Patidar’s bowlers supported his heroics admirably and bowled out Shubman Gill for just 162 runs. After the match, the RCB captain acknowledged that it was as perfect a game as it could have been.

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“It was a super game for us. And especially with the batsmen attacking with intent, it was good for us,” Rajat Patidar told the radio station at the post-match presentation ceremony.

Patidar said that the RCB batsmen go to the crease with the intention of making sure that the bowlers know that they will not just leave them. In many ways, the RCB batsmen play their first strike even before they settle into the crease.

“You have to show some body language that we are going for you. That was in every at-bat. So we had a chat in the meeting to keep a good body language. Everyone kept an attacking mindset,” Patidar said.

The Dharamsala crowd saw it from the captain himself after lighting up the last five overs of the match. RCB scored more than 100 runs in the last five overs, turning the game completely on its head. By the time Gill et al. they could breathe, the match had already escaped them.

Talking about the construction of his innings, Patidar said he wanted to take a few balls to settle down as the pitch had two paces. He added that his process remains the same: take 8-10 balls to settle before launching an all-out attack.

“In the beginning, I take a few balls – 8-10 balls – to see how the wicket behaves and how the bowler bowls. Then I have a clear idea of how to go about it. After that I don’t worry about my wicket. I try to put the bowlers under pressure,” concluded the RCB skipper.

The defending champions have now become only the fourth team in IPL history to reach the final. RCB will now face the winner of Qualifier 2 in the final of the tournament. The summit is scheduled to be held at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 31.

– The end

Issued by:

Amar Panicker

Published on:

27 May 2026 09:23 IST