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After that batting carnage from Rajat Patidar and co., RCB were halfway to the finals, but what they needed was a good start with the ball. The RCB pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jacob Duffy handed them a stellar start with early blows within the powerplay.
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru statistically never had the upper hand over the Gujarat Titans until the match started in IPL 2026 at Dharamshala. RCB were off to a promising start with the bat as the likes of Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal handed them the perfect start.
Rajat Patidar then scored a massive 93 runs and helped the Royal Challengers off to a massive total of 254 runs. Patidar's unbeaten knock and Krunal Pandya's steady innings in the middle order helped RCB to the highest ever total in an IPL playoff.
Gujarat Titans lost the game after the momentum slipped in that 14th over
The Gujarat Titans were not able to dominate in the powerplay; however, Jason Holder and Rashid Khan pulled the momentum towards them right after the end of the powerplay. With Rashid bowling economically at one end, Holder kept picking wickets from the other hand.
Jason Holder picked up two wickets in the 9th over of the game and helped them bounce back before Krunal's and Patidar's stunning innings. However, the Titans had the game in their favour within the 12th or the 13th over of the game; however, a series of missed chances changed the course of the game.
"I mean, not really. I think we were going pretty well up until the 12th and 13th overs, and I don't think our fielding was at par, dropping a couple of catches, and then our ground fielding was not up to the mark," said skipper Shubman Gill.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar topped the Purple Cap list with 26 wickets
Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked two wickets in the crucial Qualifier 1 match as well. He dismissed the likes of Shubman Gill at the top of the order and then got his second wicket by dismissing Rahul Tewatiya, the half-centurion in the Titans' innings.
With these two wickets Bhuvneshwar became the second-highest wicket-taker for RCB in a single season of the IPL. He now has 26 wickets after having played 15 matches this season and is now having the purple cap on his head.
"That's like I said, part of the planning. If you look at that plan, anything shorter or fuller, it goes for a boundary. But yes, we make a lot of effort not to give any room and try to get LBW and bowled. So it's definitely part of our planning," said Bhuvneshwar Kumar when asked about his planning with the ball.
We don't depend 100% on data: Bhuvneshwar Kumar's final say after RCB's promising win against GT
Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed that a large amount of credit goes to the support staff behind the tremendous success of the RCB bowlers. He claimed, "I think a lot of credit goes to the men behind the scenes."
"It's everyone. I mean, yes, the experience we brought in, me and Hoff (Hazlewood) is one thing, but yes, when it comes to support staff, the small, small things they're bringing it, you might avoid that. But if experienced players like Hoff and I are accepted and you apply that rule, it works for us. And I think we've been doing that since the first match, and it's helping us a lot," he added.
"I think we can say that we are data-informed. If there is something new the players are doing, okay, we definitely look into that and try to adapt. But we don't depend 100% on data. But yes, it helps," said Bhuvneshwar Kumar on how RCB's data-driven strategies have helped them in the IPL season.
