NEW DELHI: A night to forget. That is exactly how Shubman Gill summed up Gujarat Titans’ crushing defeat against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2026 at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala on Tuesday. Gill’s decision to bowl first backfired badly as defending champions RCB piled up a massive 254/5 in 20 overs – the highest total ever recorded in IPL playoff history.Things only got worse for Gujarat Titans during the chase as they failed to mount any serious challenge and were eventually bowled out for 162.The disappointment was clearly visible on Gill’s face during the post-match presentation as the GT skipper admitted his side would want to move on quickly from the heavy defeat before heading into the all-important Qualifier 2.“(Surprised with the way the pitch behaved?) I mean, not really. I think we were going pretty well up until the 12th, 13th over, 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,” Gill said.“(There are plenty of learnings from this game for you as well?) Yeah, definitely, you know, this is, like you said, one of those games that we’d like to forget and start over in Mohali,” he said.With the emphatic victory, RCB sealed a direct place in the IPL 2026 final.Gujarat Titans, however, still remain alive in the tournament and will now travel to Mullanpur for Qualifier 2, where they will face the winner of the Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals.RCB captain Rajat Patidar completely changed the game during the first innings after being dropped twice by Gujarat fielders. The RCB skipper made GT pay heavily, attacking almost every bowler he faced and racing to a half-century in just 21 balls.GT also endured a poor outing in the field, leaking crucial runs through misfields and no-balls at key moments.Patidar remained unbeaten on a sensational 93 off just 39 balls, smashing five fours and nine towering sixes in one of the greatest playoff knocks in IPL history.Chasing 255, Gujarat Titans never recovered after losing wickets at regular intervals. New Zealand pacer Jacob Duffy starred with the ball for RCB, claiming three wickets, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam and Krunal Pandya chipped in with two wickets each.“(Is that [fielding errors] something that you’ll address at training?) No, it’s definitely something that we do address in the team meetings and also in the practice sessions. But like I said, I don’t think it was a day, the intensity was right there, but under pressure situations, we were not up to the mark,” Gill said.“(Were you confident walking out to bat with the chase?) I mean, it’s all about getting a good start, you know. If you get a good power play and on a ground like this we know the ball travels and the outfield is also very quick. So if you would have gotten off to a good start in the power play, any target with the kind of way the wicket was playing and the kind of ground that we were playing at, it could have been chaseable,” he added.GT’s innings also witnessed one of the unluckiest dismissals of the tournament as opener Sai Sudharsan got out hit wicket in bizarre fashion.Sudharsan had started aggressively with two boundaries off the first two balls against Duffy and looked set for a big innings before disaster struck. While attempting a cut shot, the bat slipped out of his hands and crashed onto the stumps as he began running.“(On Sudharsan’s dismissal) Yeah, I mean, you don’t see that kind of dismissal very often. So that was very unfortunate,” Gill said.
