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Gujarat Titans' (GT) Glenn Phillips hailed Rajat Patidar's match-winning 93*-run knock, which guided Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to a massive 92-run victory over the Shubman Gill-led side in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season's Qualifier clash on Tuesday.
Defending champions RCB reached their second consecutive IPL final as they registered a big win over GT. At the centre of RCB's win was captain Rajat Patidar, who won the Player of the Match award for his brilliant unbeaten 33-ball 93 laced with nine sixes and five boundaries. Coming in to bat when RCB were 93-1 in 8.2 overs, Patidar stitched a 95-run partnership with Krunal Pandya (43) and a 40-run partnership with Jitesh Sharma (15) to guide the team to a massive total of 254/5 in 20 overs. In reply, GT could only manage 162 and lost the match by 92 runs. Speaking during the post-match press conference here, Glenn Phillips praised Patidar as a naturally aggressive and fearless batter, saying he sticks to his attacking style regardless of the match situation. Phillips added that Patidar leads by example as captain, understands his strengths well, and looked outstanding during his match-winning innings. "He's obviously a fabulous player, and when he's on, it really doesn't matter what anybody else is doing, does he? So you know he hits the ball clean, he knows his areas really well, and obviously, as the captain of that side as well, he has to play the way that he wants his boys to play," Phillips said. "So you know everybody skins the cap differently, regardless of the situation, I think he'll play whether there's seven down by eight down, he'll probably play the exact same way and as you say when it goes well it looks fantastic but obviously the different middle out of batter players play things slightly differently to their different strengths so you know the way he played today was fantastic," he added. In the chase, Gujarat Titans' batting collapsed under pressure, with only Rahul Tewatia (68 off 43 balls, including eight fours and four sixes) and Jos Buttler (29 off 11 balls, with three fours and two sixes) managing to cross the 20-run mark as they were bowled out for 162. Jacob Duffy (3/39) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/28) struck early to dismantle GT's top order, after which the innings quickly unravelled. With this win, RCB reached the IPL final for the fifth time, placing them third on the all-time list behind Mumbai Indians (six appearances, five titles) and Chennai Super Kings (10 appearances, five titles). (ANI)
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