For eighteen years, Royal Challengers Bengaluru were the most beloved nearly-team in Indian cricket. Close enough to hurt, far enough to become a running joke. The fans stayed anyway, through every final-over collapse and every morning-after post-mortem, because that is what RCB fans do.

On Sunday evening in Ahmedabad, in front of 90,000 people, the vast majority of them wearing red, that chapter closed for good. Back-to-back IPL titles. Only CSK and MI had done it before. The conversation about RCB's place in this sport's hierarchy is no longer up for debate.

The bowling was surgical

RCB won the toss and chose to field. On a sluggish, low pitch, that decision required their bowlers to be precise rather than spectacular. They were both.

Gujarat's opening pair had been among the most destructive in the tournament all season. RCB had dismissed both of them inside the powerplay twice already in 2026. They did it again on Sunday. A plan repeated three times is no longer a plan, it is a statement.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar set the tone early, drawing Sai Sudharsan into a clearly rehearsed bouncer. Shubman Gill, who had just hit a six that suggested something special was coming, threw his wicket away in the very next moment. Josh Hazlewood arrived when the situation called for pressure and applied it. Rasikh Salam Dar, the bowler opponents perhaps underestimated, took three wickets.

Jos Buttler, a man whose entire career has been built on dismantling exactly this kind of situation, took one look at the ask and quietly declined.

Gujarat finished on 155. A late flurry from Arshad Khan gave the total some respectability, but against this bowling attack, on this pitch, chasing this target, RCB knew exactly what they were doing.

Then Kohli happened

The chase was comfortable from the first over. Venkatesh Iyer, clearly carrying a physical issue and clearly not slowing down for it, attacked from ball one alongside Kohli. Seventy runs in the powerplay, two wickets down, and the tone already irreversibly set.

Kagiso Rabada came on, and Kohli treated him to three boundaries and a six in a single over. Nineteen runs. The match did not end there, but something decisive shifted in that over, and everyone watching felt it.

Rashid Khan gave Gujarat their one moment, removing Patidar with a beautifully disguised delivery, then taking Krunal Pandya in the same over. Two wickets, a brief tremor in the RCB dugout. The crowd stirred.

Then they looked at the scoreboard. Then they looked at Kohli, still there, unhurried, working the ball into gaps with the ease of someone who has done this too many times to find it stressful.

His fifty came off 25 balls. His first playoff half-century since 2016. With Tim David alongside, the required rate never became a conversation.

There was one moment, a ball hit in the air, Gill diving, the third umpire deliberating, 90,000 people holding a collective breath. Not out. Kohli punched the air. The stadium exhaled.

He finished on 75, unbeaten, cramps and all. And because the universe apparently has a sense of occasion, he hit the final ball for a six.

What this team actually is now

The numbers from the campaign are worth sitting with. Eighteen points to finish top of the group stage. A 92-run demolition of these same Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1. A final that was decided well before the last over.

This is not a team riding momentum or fortune. It is a team with a bowling attack that executes game plans on the biggest stages, a batting lineup that can win matches in the power play or grind them out in the middle overs, and a captain in Rajat Patidar who has made aggression feel like a philosophy rather than a mood.

Eighteen years to win the first title. Twelve months to win the second. The gap between those two sentences is the whole story of what RCB has become.

(With inputs from Akshay Ramesh)

Published on: Jun 1, 2026 8:37 AM IST