Sudharsan 84, Buttler 57 not out: GT crush CSK by 89 runs to lock the IPL 2026 top two
Gujarat Titans handed Chennai Super Kings their final IPL 2026 result on Thursday night, a 229/4 batting effort and an 89-run win at the Narendra Modi Stadium that all but locks Qualifier 1 and ends Chennai's playoff campaign for a third straight season.
Sudharsan extends his run as Gill turns the boundaries on
Sai Sudharsan's 84 off 53 was the through-line of GT's innings. His fifth consecutive fifty in the season puts him on a list previously occupied only by Virender Sehwag, David Warner and Jos Buttler, and the 100-plus opening stand he raised with Shubman Gill was the seventh time the pair have put together a century stand at the top, an IPL record for an opening partnership.
Gill himself made 64 off 37 with seven fours and three sixes, taking only 23 deliveries to bring up his fifty before Shivam Dube took the catch off Spencer Johnson. The innings carried him past 600 runs for the second IPL season in a row, the third captain in the tournament's history to do that. Jos Buttler came in at the back end and stayed there with 57 not out from 27 deliveries, his bat barely off the pitch as he picked off boundaries in every other over. By the close GT had 229/4 on the board.
Siraj, Rashid and Rabada split the wickets evenly
CSK never threatened to chase. Ruturaj Gaikwad fell early to Mohammed Siraj for 16, and Siraj came back to break the middle order too. Shivam Dube's 47 off 17 balls was the only counter, a brief and violent burst before he holed out and the rest of the line-up folded with it.
Siraj finished with three wickets, Rashid Khan added three more through the middle overs, and Kagiso Rabada cleaned up the tail with another three-fer. CSK were bowled out for 140 in 13.4 overs, the kind of collapse that explains both the margin and the lift in net run rate that comes with it.
What today's result locks in
GT close the league phase on 18 points and a net run rate of plus 0.695, level on points with Royal Challengers Bengaluru but second on NRR. RCB take on SRH at Hyderabad on Friday with the order at the top still on the table, though the Qualifier 1 slots are locked in. SRH, on 16 points, are also through. The remaining open question is the fourth playoff seat, with four teams still alive on 12, 13 or 14 points chasing one slot across the closing weekend.
For CSK, the result closes a season that always looked one big innings short. They have one league game left, but mathematically the door has shut.
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