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Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) head coach Andy Flower hailed Virat Kohli as the "heartbeat" of the team's dressing room after they won their second consecutive Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 by defeating Gujarat Titans (GT) in the final on Sunday at Gujarat's Narendra Modi Stadium. Flower highlighted Kohli as a great role model for the team.
RCB became only the third side after Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) to defend their IPL crown successfully. The Rajat Patidar-led side, after restricting GT to 155/8 in the first innings, chased the target down with five wickets and two overs remaining. In a video on X uploaded by RCB's handle, Andy Flower singled out Virat Kohli for special praise, describing him as the "heartbeat" of the RCB dressing room. He commended Kohli's consistent courage, commitment, and willingness to challenge top-quality opposition, saying his example serves as outstanding role modelling for the entire team. "Virat, I know you get a lot of attention and quite rightly. But I don't want to downplay that because you are a heartbeat in this dressing room. And the courage that you continually show to go out there and put yourself on the line and take on high-quality opposition is a bloody great role modelling for all of us," Flower said in the video. https://x.com/RCBTweets/status/2061297210449625193 Flower also praised the team's courage and character throughout the season, especially during the IPL 2026 playoffs. He said that while success at the highest level requires skill and cricketing intelligence, it is heart and bravery that make the difference, and said that RCB displayed those qualities consistently in their successful title defence. "When I think of our season, and I particularly think of the last couple of games in the playoffs, what really stands out for me is the bravery of you guys in the middle. There's been countless examples of it. But when you're playing at the top level, and that's Test cricket or World Cups or IPL, you need to be obviously highly skilful. You need to have cricket intelligence, but you really need to have heart. And we've seen that in abundance this year," Flower said. Coming to the IPL 2026 final match, put to bat first by RCB, GT scored just 155/8 in 20 overs, with Washington Sundar (50* in 37 balls, with five fours) and Nishant Sindhu (20 in 18 balls, with three fours) being the only one to cross the 20-run mark. Rasikh Dar Salam (3/27), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/29) and Josh Hazlewood (2/37) took wickets regularly. RCB started off well with a 62-run stand between Venkatesh Iyer (32 in 16 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) and Virat Kohli. GT showed some fight, reducing RCB to 132/5 at one point, but Virat (75* in 42 balls, with nine fours and three sixes) guided RCB to a win with two overs left. This is RCB's second IPL title win and overall their fourth Indian franchise cricket trophy, including two Women's Premier League (WPL) titles. (ANI)
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