The Gujarat Titans all-rounder Washington Sundar brought up a gritty half-century off 37 balls against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL 2026 finals. Their batting unit was falling apart as they lost 3 wickets for just 55 runs in the 8 overs. Washington knew that he had a huge role to play in the innings and he did a good job with some solid defense early on.
This knock was a much needed one for the Titans as even though it was slow, it helped them reach a respectable total on board. Only twice have teams won an IPL Final with a score lower than this and this time around, the Gujarat Titans will be looking to recreate one of those games.
Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharshan had been the two stalwarts of the batting unit of the Titans but this time out, the opening pair couldn’t last long. Even Jos Buttler wasn’t able to score much as he looked like he was struggling all throughout the game.
The Titans wouldn’t have had many games when their top order had been dismantled in a similar fashion and this was probably the worst time to put their middle order to test. None of their other batters were really able to make a decent contribution other than Washington Sundar and they would have felt like they had missed out on 25-30 odd runs on the board.
RCB’s ruthless bowling display pushes GT on the backfoot in Finals
Washington Sundar has been a solid player in the middle order for the Titans as he has been able to contribute some crucial runs for the side. But today, he was offered a much more difficult task to take his side to a commendable total on board but he would have liked to contribute a bit more. Washington would have liked to have at least one of the batters to stick along with him and form a decent partnership. The wickets of the Gujarat Titans kept falling like a deck of cards and this batting collapse could have just cost the game for the side.
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru have been simply extraordinary with the ball as they gave no breathing space to the titans. After the first two overs, the fans would have expected to witness another great partnership between the opening duo but Josh Hazlewood spoiled the party for the Titans. Bhuvneshwar Kumar came back in the next over to get rid of the dangerous Sai Sudharshan and that set the tone for the rest of the bowlers in the game. Rasikh Salam and Krunal Pandya were also clinical with the ball as they picked some huge wickets.
As the Royal Challengers Bengaluru are gearing up for one final push at their second consecutive title in the TATA IPL, they will have to chase down a total of 156. Virat Kohli and Venkatesh Iyer will be looking to give the side a solid start and put the pressure early on in the GT bowling unit. The defending champions seem to be the favourites from here but we cannot simply predict the results of a TATA IPL Final as it could go either way.
