IPL final: Back-to-back for RCB, Virat

Digging out an on-side six off left-arm seamer Arshad Khan, the ball landing somewhere in a sea of hands, Virat Kohli only raised his hands to acknowledge Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s second Indian Premier League (IPL) title in as many years. Kohli, unbeaten on 75 in what turned out to be one of the simpler chases witnessed in the title-clash, then held out a gloved palm and invited his teammates to invade the Ahmedabad pitch, one on which the home side, Gujarat Titans, had gotten crushed with over two overs and five wickets to spare.

Kohli and the winning RCB unit, however, celebrated like men used to winning gold. Just last year, at the same stage against Punjab Kings, Kohli dropped to his knees by the boundary ropes where he was fielding and wept like he hadn’t ever before in public, having waited 18 years to win a trophy with the franchise that he had started out with.

Just 12 months later, both the victory and the celebrations had taken a different meaning. Walking off after his masterful innings, one that was interrupted by several attacks of pain to his right leg, he blew a kiss to his wife in the Motera stands, and that was that. He was now a part of a side used to this feeling of wrapping up championships.

In many ways, the match was won well before Kohli and fellow opener Venkatesh Iyer walked out to the middle to chase a pretty paltry target of 156. Despite the ease of the figure, they didn't take it easy. Iyer, who had twice smoked a fifty in IPL finals for Kolkata Knight Riders, blazed his way to a 16-ball 32, all but visibly dropping GT captain Shubman Gill’s shoulders, before Kohli took over. And how.

The greatest scorer of off-side runs in the modern game ended up making each of his first fifty runs on the leg side, one particular Kagiso Rabada over banged past his hips for three fours and a six. That 50 came in 25 balls, the fastest IPL fifty ever by the 37-year-old, one ball faster than his 26-ball effort that arrived a good 13 years ago against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Given his physical condition, not so great on the night, and the tameness of the target, even worse, Kohli decided to finish it off in a hurry, his third six of the chase bringing the curtains down.

"I always dreamt of hitting the winning runs in an IPL final," Kohli, the Player of the Final, would say later. "I told Venky during the change-over, we need to kill the game during the powerplay."

They did. And when it was finally done, Kohli and Bengaluru were back-to-back champions. Just like IPL’s most successful sides, Chennai Super Kings (2010 and 2011) and Mumbai Indians (2019 and 2020).

Like CSK and MI, RCB now looks set to define an era.

Even though Gill stated that he would have liked to bat first had he won the toss, Titans didn’t quite walk the talk. Opener-captain Gill and Sudharsan, in that order, were gone before the end of the fourth over, for scores of 12 and 10 respectively. This was thanks to the genius of both Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood, up among the finest fast bowling partnerships assembled in recent IPLs, getting rid of one opener each. Bhuvi finished on 28 wickets, just one short of this year’s Purple Cap winner, losing-finalist Rabada.

These two GT batters, Gill and Sudharsan, had scored over 700 runs each, 2nd and 3rd on the run-getters list of the season, and they had no more role to play with the bat with the team score on just 26. It was always going to be severely downhill from there on for the side playing at ‘home’. But Ahmedabad hardly felt so for the Gujarat side, thanks perhaps to the presence of Kohli in the opposition.

If not for an unbeaten half-century (exactly 50) by Washington Sundar, promoted to three-drop in the circumstances, GT wouldn’t have even gotten to 155/8. For, no one in the batting order before Sundar scored over 20, and no one below him passed 7.

These, then, were easy pickings for the defending champions. But thanks to a very hungry Kohli, used now to the ways of winning championships, they came out attacking.

Brief scores: Gujarat Titans 155/8 in 20 overs (Washington Sundar 50 not out, Nishant Sidhu 20; Rasikh Dar 3/27, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/29) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru 161/5 in 18 overs (Virat Kohli 75 not out, Venkatesh Iyer 32; Rashid Khan 2/25) by 5 wickets