Gujarat regroup at Mullanpur as Sooryavanshi-fired Rajasthan come for the second IPL 2026 final spot
Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals meet at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur on Friday evening, with the second seat in the IPL 2026 final on the line. The winner travels to Ahmedabad to face Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Sunday. The loser flies home.
Gujarat are licking a 92-run wound
Gujarat arrive in New Chandigarh having been blown off the park in Qualifier 1 at Dharamsala on Tuesday. Rajat Patidar's unbeaten 93 off 33 balls, the fastest 90-plus innings in IPL history, carried RCB to 254 for 5, after which Jacob Duffy's 3 for 39 left the Titans 162 all out. Shubman Gill's side never got into the chase: the powerplay took out half their top order and the rest was an over-rate exercise.
The two-day turnaround works in their favour. Gujarat finished second on the league table after a season built on a balanced attack led by Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj, and a top order led by Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan with Jos Buttler at three or four. The Qualifier 1 loss exposed how much weight that top order is carrying when the powerplay does not hold up.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi sets the temperature
Rajasthan won the Eliminator at Mullanpur on Wednesday by 47 runs over Sunrisers Hyderabad, with the Royals posting 243 for 8 and SRH stopped at 196. The headline number was Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's 97 off 29 balls. The 12 sixes inside the knock are the most by any batter in an IPL knockout innings, and the 16-ball fifty inside that knock tied Suresh Raina's record for the fastest fifty in any IPL playoff match.
The same innings carried Sooryavanshi past Chris Gayle's record for most sixes in a single IPL season, with 65 maximums for 2026. The 15-year-old fell three runs short of a century and one delivery short of threatening Gayle's 30-ball hundred mark. At this point Gujarat are planning around him rather than for him.
Season head-to-head: one apiece
The two sides split their league meetings. Rajasthan won the first by six runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium on 4 April, defending 210 with Dhruv Jurel and Yashasvi Jaiswal's contributions and a late hold from Tushar Deshpande and Jofra Archer. Gujarat returned the favour on 9 May at the Sawai Mansingh, with Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan's fifties and Rashid Khan's four-for taking GT to their fourth straight win at that point of the season.
Pitch reads as a chase
The Mullanpur surface has been a batting paradise this IPL. The average first-innings score at the venue this season is around 214, and six of the eight completed innings here have crossed 200. The new ball offers some movement for pacers in the first six overs; from there it is true bounce on a black-and-red soil mix that comes onto the bat. Evening dew has tilted things further toward the chasing side, and toss-winners have generally preferred to bowl.
Both captains will read that and want to chase. Gill needs his top order to last beyond the powerplay this time; the Q1 collapse was a powerplay collapse. Sanju Samson will want Sooryavanshi to swing first and ask Gujarat's bowlers to find an answer they did not have for SRH on Wednesday.
What is at stake
For Rajasthan, a first IPL final since their runners-up finish in 2022, and a shot at a second IPL title eighteen years on from their inaugural 2008 triumph under Shane Warne. For Gujarat, a third IPL final in five seasons after their 2022 title and 2023 runners-up finish, and a rematch with RCB five days after Dharamsala. RCB are waiting in Ahmedabad with five days off, having won Qualifier 1 with the highest knockout-innings total of the season.
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