By Prakash Nair 
Bengaluru, April 24: Nobody in the Chinnaswamy press box was talking about Sai Sudharsan when the evening began. The names dominating every pre-match conversation were Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Virat Kohli. As it turns out, those are conversations that will have to wait. Tonight belonged entirely to a 22-year-old from Chennai who walked out to open the batting and produced one of the cleanest, most assured T20 centuries this ground has seen in years.
Gujarat Titans posted 205 for 3 in 20 overs. RCB have a mountain to chase.
The Toss, and an Early Complication
RCB won the toss and opted to bowl first. No surprises there, every captain at this ground this season has made the same call, and three of four have won doing it. Rajat Patidar explained it simply: he felt it might be a bowl-first surface, and that chasing gives you clarity about the target.
What he did not expect was losing his opening batter before a ball was bowled. Phil Salt was injured, and Jacob Bethell replaced him in a forced change though Bethell, not being part of the bowl-first XI, would only come in during the second innings as Impact Player. So RCB took the field without either of their frontline openers in the playing XI, which was already an awkward position before GT had faced a delivery.
GT made two changes of their own Jason Holder came in for Glenn Phillips, and Manav Suthar replaced Ashok Sharma. Holder’s inclusion gave them a genuine lower-order threat, as the last few overs would prove.
Sudharsan Builds While Gill Watches
The first three overs were careful. GT were at 20 for 0 after three, with Sudharsan looking confident from the start while Gill took his time at the other end. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was tight. Josh Hazlewood was disciplined. RCB looked in control of the tempo, if not the scoreboard.
Then Sudharsan started. Not with a bang that is not how he operates. He found gaps, rotated strike, picked his moments. An audacious flick off Romario Shepherd sailed over for six to bring up his fifty, then he leaned into width the very next ball and crunched a cover drive to the boundary. From cheeky to textbook in a heartbeat. The fifty came in 34 deliveries.
By the end of the powerplay, the opening stand had put on 57 runs. Gill had been restrained almost unnaturally so for a batter in his kind of form. Sudharsan had done the bulk of the work, and he was only getting warmer.
The Partnership That Built the Total
The real damage came in the middle overs, where RCB’s bowling struggled to find any control. Krunal Pandya went around the wicket to Sudharsan, varied his pace, bowled a bouncer, went round-arm, and conceded just four singles. One decent over in an otherwise difficult spell for the hosts.
Romario Shepherd was struggling, leaking runs through gaps that Sudharsan and Gill were finding with increasing ease. The pitch had flattened completely. There was no movement, no variable bounce, nothing for bowlers to hold onto.
Gill was not dominating; he was accumulating, keeping the scoreboard ticking while Sudharsan played the innings of two men. At one point, Gill got down on one knee and slog-swept Krunal over deep backward square leg for a six a reminder that even when restrained, the GT captain is never entirely dormant.
The partnership grew. It grew past 50. Past 80. Past 100. Chinnaswamy, which had been noisy all evening, started to go quiet in patches as the GT openers made it look uncomfortably simple.
Suyash Breaks It Open. Then Bowls Him Out
It was Suyash Sharma who finally found the breakthrough RCB needed. A googly, slightly short, and Shubman Gill went after it looking to clear the ropes. He did not get the timing right. The ball went straight up. Devdutt Padikkal settled under it and completed the catch without drama. A huge roar from the Chinnaswamy crowd.
Gill walked back after scoring 32 off 24, including 2 fours and a six. It was a knock built on control but perhaps lacking the explosiveness you would have expected from a batter of his quality on this surface. The partnership had put on 127 runs and taken GT to a position from which anything above 190 was possible.
The first wicket fell at 128 for 1 in the 12th over.
The Century. The Moment.
Sudharsan kept going. Jos Buttler came in at three and provided brief support, but the innings continued to revolve around the left-hander at the other end who simply refused to slow down or make a mistake.
The century came in just 57 balls. A short and wide delivery from Suyash Sharma, slapped through the off-side and that was it. His first IPL 2026 hundred. The Chinnaswamy crowd rose, GT supporters on their feet, teammates out in the dugout applauding.
It was a hundred that had everything. Control in the first six overs when the new ball was moving. Fluency in the middle when the field spread and gaps opened. Power at the end when the situation demanded acceleration. Eleven fours. Five sixes. A classy, dominant knock that left its mark on everything it touched.
The dismissal, when it came, was sharp. Josh Hazlewood came back and found a short delivery angling around off stump. Sudharsan went for it but could not keep it down. It flew straight back to Hazlewood, who reacted instantly a caught and bowled that was all instinct and quick hands.Sudharsan walked back to a standing ovation from the entire ground, not just the GT section.
The second wicket fell at 160 for 2 in the 15th over.
Buttler Departs, But the Damage Is Done
Bhuvneshwar Kumar got rid of Buttler soon after a low full toss outside off, Buttler went for the reverse scoop but did not quite connect, and the ball flew straight to Josh Hazlewood at short third man, who held a sharp catch inside the circle. Buttler had contributed 25 off 16 useful without being decisive.
The third wicket fell at 177 for 3 in the 17th over.
What followed in the final three overs was brutal. Washington Sundar and Jason Holder two lower-order batters who had not expected to be at the crease with a hundred to build on went after everything. The last over alone went for 18 runs, including two sixes, as Holder and Sundar dismantled whoever Patidar threw the ball to.
At the close of the 20th over, Sundar was unbeaten on 19 off 12, Holder was unbeaten on 23 off 10. The final 28 runs had come in the last three overs at a run rate that made even the most optimistic RCB fan in the stands wince.
The Bowling Numbers Tell the Full Story
Krunal Pandya was the most expensive, conceding 50 runs from four overs without taking a wicket. Hazlewood finished with the most important scalp Sudharsan’s while Suyash Sharma got Gill and Buttler’s wicket went to Bhuvneshwar. Rasikh Salam was steady without threatening.
The RCB bowling unit will look at tonight and find some of the same problems that surfaced against Delhi Capitals no consistent pressure across all four overs per bowler, and too much width offered on a surface that punished anything short and wide without mercy.
What RCB Need
206 to win. At Chinnaswamy. Under dew. Chasing.
As it turns out, those are not the worst conditions in which to be chasing. Every toss winner here this season has chosen to bowl first for a reason the dew makes gripping the ball difficult in the second innings, boundaries feel shorter, and the surface only gets better for batting. The average first innings score here has been 193. RCB have already chased this kind of total at this ground before.
But they will need Virat Kohli to be Virat Kohli tonight. They will need Patidar and Tim David to deliver in the middle. And they will need to remember that they have Bethell available as Impact Player a left-hander with T20 tournament experience who could change the shape of the chase at any moment.
Gujarat Titans, for their part, know exactly what they have set. Rashid Khan, Rabada, Siraj, and Holder have 20 overs between them to defend it. On any other ground, 205 is a strong total. At Chinnaswamy, under these lights, with dew settling on the outfield, it is a competitive one.
Nothing more, nothing less.
The second innings are about to begin.
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- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
