(ESPNCRICINFO) – Shubman Gill broke tens of thousands of hearts by responding to Virat Kohli’s second hundred in two matches with a double of his own as Gujarat Titans chased down 198 to knock Royal Challengers Bangalore out and give Mumbai Indians a passage into the playoffs.

It was hard not to see this as a symbolic passing of the baton in the larger context of the Indian batting kingdom. Gill took eight balls fewer than Kohli to get to the hundred, hit seven more sixes, but Kohli’s circumstance was different. He had wickets falling around him whereas Vijay Shankar — Gill’s partner for the second-wicket stand of 123 — enjoyed much more luck than RCB batters did. In fact, Titans scored 45 runs in false responses, more than any innings in this IPL.

Ink boys get going
It was a long, agonising night for the Bengaluru hopefuls as thunderstorms and intermittent drizzle pushed the start of the match right to the brink of the point where you start losing overs. RCB then lost the toss, and were put in. To brighten up their evening, Kohli and Faf du Plessis continued their opening domination with a 67-run stand. They took even Mohammed Shami for runs and denied him a powerplay wicket. First job done.

Titans own middle overs
There was some luck involved in the first wicket. It was a skilful wrong’un from Noor Ahmad that dipped on du Plessis, but the thick outside edge was never going to be caught except in freakish circumstances. It happened as the ball hit Wriddhiman Saha’s pad and lobbed for an easy catch at slip. At least Titans had the slip in place despite that start.

Poignantly for the RCB fans, the partnership ended at a season aggregate of 939, the same that Kohli and AB de Villiers scored together in 2016.

Rashid Khan then burst through the opening, bowling Glenn Maxwell with a wrong’un, taking away the purple cap from Shami, who duly returned to end a cameo from Michael Bracewell and reclaim the purple cap. Between the two wickets, Saha showed real skill to stump Mahipal Lomror down the leg side. When Yash Dayal marked his comeback with a golden duck for Dinesh Karthik – his 17th duck in all IPL, a record – RCB were 133 for 5 in 14.2, and face to face with their lack of big hitters down the order.