Shubman Gill 104 ends Sooryavanshi's IPL 2026 party and sets up Gujarat vs RCB final

Results in brief: Gujarat Titans (219/3 in 18.4 ovs) beat Rajasthan Royals (214/7) by 7 wickets in Qualifier 2 to reach IPL final. Gilles (104)

And just like that, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s show for IPL 2026 is over. Gujarat Titans brought down the curtain on the 15-year-old’s terrifying, unbelievable and utterly entertaining party, knocking out Rajasthan Royals and storming into the final.

GT vs RR Qualifier 2: HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD

A breathtaking 96 from Sooryavanshi, breathtaking not in the way his dazzling strokeplay usually is, but a painful, laborious, grind-every-move – made against tight plans and a brilliant fast-bowling show from Gujarat Titans, was ultimately not enough in Mullanpur on Friday, May 29.

Shubman Gill had other ideas and made his maiden IPL century in two years at the most perfect moment possible. Chasing 215 – a 200-plus target for the first time this season – Gujarat Titans with seven wickets and eight balls to spare, Gill and Sai Sudharsan put on a stunning 167 to make the whole thing look like a Sunday stroll.

Both captains said they would bat first and the pitch was widely expected to help the side set the total. It didn’t quite work out that way – or perhaps more accurately, Gill and Sudharsan just refused to let it.

They now face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final – their third in five seasons – in a rematch of Qualifier 1, where Gill’s men were trounced by the defending champions. But they head home to Ahmedabad full of confidence and Sunday’s final at the Narendra Modi Stadium promises to be an enticing battle. But that’s for another day.

Back to New Chandigarh for now.

Not many turned up at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Shubman Gill shirts, not even in the Test captain’s backyard. Almost half the crowd, including children, had made the journey for one reason only: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Both the captain and the schoolboy gave them plenty to cheer on, but it was Punjab da puttar who walked away with the swagger when it mattered most. And that’s exactly why teams scrap and grind to finish in the top two.

It buys you something priceless: a second chance, a clean slate, a trip to the finals, even if you arrive bruised. That’s exactly what Gujarat Titans were after they were trounced by Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Dharamsala on Tuesday – bruised, battered and written off by many. Yet they left looking like a side with selective amnesia, unburdened by the memory of that defeat.

Their bowling attack picked up and restricted Rajasthan Royals to 214 despite one of the most mature and stunning knocks produced by Sooryavanshi in the IPL.
And with the bat, they were clinical and determined from the first ball. It was exactly the kind of win Gujarat Titans needed – a validation of their progress, their belief in a style more orthodox than most in this T20 tournament on steroids.

Even on the eve of the match, assistant coach Parthiv Patel bristled when asked if Gujarat were one-dimensional and predictable in their batting and bowling plans. “Everyone has a different way of playing. We have our own style. Even in the first half of the tournament when we didn’t do so great and we did well, we still stuck to our process. We believe in our abilities and we know what we can do,” he said.

And this process was no secret. The Gujarat Titans were the top batting line-up – they needed Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Jose Buttler to come up big. They relied heavily on their in-form new-ball pairing of Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada to defend or set up totals. Nine of their 14 league wins have been built on exactly this scenario. No surprises, no tricks up your sleeve – you just back your best players to perform, and more often than not, that’s what happened.

Then came qualifying 1 and the bikes went down spectacularly. None of the first three fired. Siraj and Rabada were taken to the cleaners. The momentum didn’t just slow down, it collapsed. So did they as they rolled from Dharamsala to New Chandigarh to face a Rajasthan Royals side riding high after beating SunRisers Hyderabad.

Still, Gujarat walked away looking like a team that had completely erased the memory of Tuesday. They had never even come close to chasing 200+ before this season. Yet under the heaviest pressure of their campaign, their ever-reliable openers did what they do best.

Sixteen runs out from the very first over – bowled by Jofra Archer – announced his intention loud and clear. They didn’t let up even after that. Sudharsan was out for 14, the lone chance offered by the pair in the first ten overs. There was no thrashing, no reckless swing – Gujarat’s first six innings didn’t arrive until the ninth over. But by that time they had already exceeded a hundred.

That foundation set them up for a relatively smooth second half, even as Sudharsan dropped another crazy hit. Gill carried on regardless, finishing with 104 off 53 balls to power the Titans into the final.

– The end

Issued by:

Saurabh Kumar

Published on:

29 May 2026 23:42 IST