(ESPNCRICINFO) – It took them 18 years to win their first title, but Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) took no time in becoming only the third team to successfully defend it. Their seam bowlers made superb use of a slightly sticky surface after Rajat Patidar won the toss, restricting Gujarat Titans (GT), who were in their third final in five years of their existence, to 155, the exact same score RCB managed in the league match against the seam team in the same ground on the same pitch No. 6 bang in the middle of the square.
Josh Hazlewood, who has never lost a T20 or ODI final, set the tone with the wicket of Shubman Gill in his first over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar momentarily reclaimed the purple cap with two wickets, and Rasikh Salam capped off his best IPL with three to take his tally for the year to 19. Last final’s Player of the match, Krunal Pandya, who won his fifth IPL final out of five, also chipped in with the big wicket of Jos Buttler in his analysis of 4-0-23-1. He is now behind only Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu in number of titles, and is also the first player to successfully defend a title with two different teams.
Only three out of 26 scores under 190 in a full match had been defended successfully this IPL. With the ball still nibbling around, the best attack in the tournament would have thought they had a chance, but amid falling wickets, Virat Kohli chose this final to hit his fastest IPL fifty and his highest playoff score, leading a five-wicket win with two overs to spare.
Get the openers
Gill and B Sai Sudharsan came into the final as the only pair of batters from the same team to have scored 700 or more runs in the same IPL. However, they were up against bowlers that have troubled them in the past. A cagey start ensued, Gill survived the Bhuvneshwar over, but Hazlewood had him top-edging his signature short-arm pull.
GT promoted Nishant Sindhu to No. 3 to protect Buttler from Bhuvneshwar, but the wily bowler made sure Buttler had to come out as he took out Sudharsan in his second over. He first beat Sudharsan on the charge with a bouncer before continuing with another, this one taking the toe end on the ramp. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, in attendance in Ahmedabad, was now assured of the orange cap. This was only the fourth time this IPL that both the GT owners had been dismissed inside the powerplay, three of them against RCB.
Middle-overs choke
Seeing some grip from the pitch and conventional, subdued batters at the wicket, Krunal shelved all his fancy change-ups and bowled only length. His first three overs yielded zero boundaries. Salam was equally miserly at the other end, just bowling good length and enjoying the slight variations from the surface. One of those had Sindhu caught at long-on.
When Krunal started his final over, they had gone 37 legal deliveries without a boundary. Krunal expected the frustrated Buttler to try something, saw him coming and fired in a wide yorker for a spectacular stumping by Jitesh Sharma.
