Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal produced defining T20 innings of 81 and 55 respectively as Royal Challengers Bengaluru chased down 206 with five wickets to spare in their IPL encounter against Gujarat Titans at Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday. After Devdutt and Kohli combined for a rapid 115-run stand for the second wicket, RCB’s run chase looked smooth, and they sealed the job in 18.5 overs to move into the second spot on the table with 10 points. Their aggressive batting stood out sharply against the more measured approach Gujarat used earlier, even as Sai Sudharsan’s century set a serious platform of 205 for three.
RCB’s win also pushed them past Rajasthan Royals on the points table, thanks to a better net run rate. The defending champions have now registered five victories from their seven matches as the season heads toward its crucial stage. Kohli, dropped for a duck by Washington Sundar off Mohammad Siraj, then adjusted quickly to the pitch, handling Prasidh Krishna and Kagiso Rabada with comfort and control. His timing and shot selection helped RCB keep building momentum at the right moments.
Chinnaswamy was effectively Kohli’s stage during the chase. Prasidh was struck for two fours, Rabada was dispatched for a six, and Rashid Khan—Kohli’s long-standing nemesis—was pulled over mid-wicket for another maximum as Kohli raced to his fifty off 30 balls. At the other end, Devdutt matched the intensity, launching Prasidh for a couple of sixes and also finding a way past Rashid with a big hit, reaching his own fifty 10 balls quicker than Kohli’s milestone.
The partnership did not last forever, though. Rashid delivered the moment that ended Devdutt’s innings, and Kohli—who had been reading the surface brilliantly—was then struck by a Jason Holder delivery that crashed onto his stumps. RCB’s chase briefly wobbled after that, with skipper Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma also falling, leaving the home side struggling at 173 for five. Still, Krunal Pandya, who made 23 off 12 balls, and Tim David, scoring 10, steadied the pursuit and guided RCB beyond the target to finish the match successfully. It was also a strong home record for Bengaluru, with this marking their fourth win at Chinnaswamy from five matches this season.
Earlier, Sudharsan struck a magnificent 100 that almost went against the usual T20 script, yet it still proved sufficient to keep Gujarat in a competitive position. In fact, the Titans’ first 12.4 overs were described as an anti-thesis of aggressive T20 batting, showing that runs could be accumulated without constantly attacking the ball with raw power. Sudharsan’s 58-ball knock—his third century in the IPL—served as the backbone of that unusual yet effective batting plan.
The left-hander dominated an opening alliance worth 128 runs with captain Shubman Gill, who contributed 32 off 24 balls. During the Power Play, Sudharsan took 29 deliveries to reach his runs while Gill managed just seven in that same phase, underlining how much control Sudharsan held over the tempo. The 24-year-old, who also became the fastest to reach 2000 IPL runs alongside his innings, added 46 runs in the Power Play and then completed his fifty off 33 balls, striking Romario Shepherd for a six to mark the transition.
Sudharsan’s acceleration followed quickly, with his next fifty arriving in 24 balls. It was a stretch where he effectively neutralised RCB’s spin pair of Krunal and Suyash Sharma, using the pace and angles to keep the fielders under pressure. Krunal tried his trademark bouncer to unsettle him, but Sudharsan answered with an upper-cut over backward point for six. He then kept the pressure on with another boundary and a swept six off the same bowler, forcing Patidar to manage different options as the match swung firmly in Gujarat’s favour.
Gill’s dismissal, though, did not change the trajectory much. Sudharsan, even after being dropped on 91 by Suyash Sharma off his bowling, continued to bleed RCB’s attack quietly rather than allowing the chase to tighten. His hundred came from a single off Suyash, but once he reached the milestone he couldn’t build further and eventually offered a catch, with Josh Hazlewood taking it. Sudharsan fell exactly at 100, and the timing was notable because it matched the total Gujarat had posted against Mumbai Indians in a 99-run rout just a few days earlier.
With Sudharsan gone, RCB managed to pull things back slightly in the death overs. Between overs 17 and 20, when Gujarat were 174 for two, the Titans managed only 31 runs. That final contribution still included a brief burst from Holder, who finished unbeaten on 23 off 10 balls, but the overall end to the innings left Gujarat short of a bigger total—setting up the chase RCB ultimately completed with confidence.
