Overview
- Gujarat Titans chased 215 to win Qualifier 2 on Friday, May 29, with Shubman Gill scoring 104 and GT winning by seven wickets to reach the IPL final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
- Vaibhav Sooryavanshi scored 96 for Rajasthan Royals in the loss and finished the tournament as the leading run-scorer with a reported 776 runs after the playoff stage.
- Sooryavanshi’s 2026 campaign included a 29-ball 97 in the Eliminator and a new single-season IPL sixes record of 65, achievements that drew public praise from figures such as Chris Gayle and Suryakumar Yadav.
- Gujarat entered Qualifier 2 with a clear plan to remove Sooryavanshi early and used short-pitched bowling and new-ball discipline to disrupt him while Gill and Sai Sudharsan built the match-winning opening stand.
- The result underlines that even record-breaking individual form cannot carry a team through knockouts and signals that opponents will increasingly prioritise new-ball plans, short-pitch bowling and specific spin matchups to blunt early powerplay hitters.