GT vs RR, IPL 2026 Highlights: Royals survive Rabada-Rashid rearguard act, beat Titans by 6 runs

Deshpande sends back Rashid with the penultimate ball with GT needing 7 to win off two. And then he sends the last ball right into the blockhole to new boy Ashok Sharma. Deshpande and Archer have won RR the first proper thriller of this season. Well that was quite something. RR looked like they were on the box seat for about 90 percent of this match before the last four overs came along. Rashid Khan has pulled rabits out of the hat in the past as well for GT with the bat and so him winning it for them with a six and a four off the last two balls was really not out of the question. That 43-run stand between him and Rabada is what made this game a thriller. But RR toughed it out, Archer showed his class when the time came and Deshpande did what he has done a number of times for CSK in the past and Mumbai in domestic cricket.

Wowza, where did this come from! Sandeep Sharma comes in for the 18th, his first ball was full outside off, Rashid slams it between backward point and short third for four. Single second ball and then Rabada smacks the living daylights off the third ball back down the ground for six. A single, double and single off the remainder of the over. Rashid and Rabada have somehow made GT the favourites to win thsi now.

Rashid on 21 off 11, Rabada on 20 off 10.

Fifth ball of that same over, Rashid smashes it past extra cover, the batters run two but Shahrukh thinks that a third is on. But the fielder in question is Jadeja, he fires in the throw at the striker's end, Jurel knocks off the bails. Not the wisest of calls to challenge Jadeja's arm, regardless of his age.

Shahrukh Khan run out (Jadeja/Jurel) 11 (4)

GT 161/7 in 14.5 overs

Top edged and fine leg takes it! Burger sends back Buttler with the first ball of the 14th over. Royals inching closer and closer to victory now.

Buttler c Sandeep Sharma b Burger 26 (14)

Wow, Sundar comes in, hits a four, and then goes back. Full on the pads for the third ball of the 13th over, Sundar gets a bit too under it and sends it straight into the hands of deep midwicket, where its Jadeja who takes the catch.

Sundar c Jadeja b Ravi Bishnoi 4 (2)

GT 131/4 in 12.3 overs

Well this was coming. Ravi Bishnoi comes in for the 11th over and he had tightened things up, Just four runs off the first four balls. Bishnoi then drags one down on middle and leg, Sudharsan takes a swipe with everything he has. It is skewed into the hands of the fielder at deep backward square leg.

Sudharsan c Deshpande b Ravi Bishnoi 73 (44)

GT 107/2 in 10.4 overs

How about it. At the end of it all, Parag gets the breakthrough in that over. He lobs up the last ball on length on off, Kushagra swings at it and the ball goes towards long on. Hetmyer is at the boundary, he takes the catch, then throws the ball up as his weight takes him beyond the boundary, he then steps back in and pouches the ball coolly. Umpire confirms the dismissal with a replay.

Kushagra c Hetmyer b Parag 18 (14)

GT 78/1 in 8 overs

Sudharsan and Kushagra both got a four each and two more singles. Sudharsan on 33 off 24 balls. Kushagra is on 17 off 12. The target is such that it looks like GT are behind in the game at the moment from the perspective of their required run rate but they would know that having all of their wickets intact at the end of the powerplay is always good news.

GT 56/0 in 6 overs

An early introduction for Sandeep Sharma in the fourth over and he does well, just eight runs given. He errs in line second ball, goes on to Kushagra's pads and the latter glances it past short fine leg for four. But that is the only boundary in that over.

Bishnoi is replacing Donovan Ferreira for RR. Kumar Kushagra is opening the batting with Sai Sudharsan in place of Gill. Jofra Archer to bowl the first over.

Well that is exactly the score that Parag said that they will be aiming for at the toss. Jurel the clear standout with 75 off 42, Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi set the pace early on with the former scoring 55 off 36. But the nature of the pitch is such that GT have a realistic chance at chasing down 211. In fact, this may only be a par score.

Good news for GT that Ashok Sharma is back on the field and could bowl the 18th over. He had got a hand to the ball after Donovan Ferreira had hit the fifth of the over down the ground. In the process the ball seemed to have chipped a bit off his fingernail. He had walked off the ground and the umpire had also changed the ball, something that GT were not happy with at all. Ashok walked off only after bowling the last ball of the over though. Rabada then dismissed Fereira first ball of the next over but Dhruv Jurel has soldiered on and raised his half-century/

He sits on 61 off 35, Ravindra Jadeja, batting for RR for the first time since the first two editions of the IPL is at the other end.

Hetmyer is off in a flash here. Smashes sixes off the last two balls of that over from Prasidh. Rashid then starts the next over with a wide down the leg side. Then he goes for the googly that Jurel picks, slugs it over wide long on for a six. Singles off the rest of the over and JUrel is on 41 off 26, Hetmyer on 14 off six.

RR 160/3 in 15 overs

TIMBER! Jaiswal was looking eager to switch up a gear. Rabada with a length delivery third ball of the 13th, on off stump. Jaiswal backs away looking to whack it over the off side but makes a bit too much room for himself. The ball flattens the off stump unimpeded.

Jaiswal b Rabada 55 (36)

RR 126/2 in 12.3 overs

Well there has been a significant slowing down since Sooryavanshi's dismissal. Dhruv Jurel belts the second ball of the 10th over above extra cover for a four. A single is all that comes from the rest of the over.

Jaiswal on 47 off 30, Jurel on 11 off 12.

The powerplay has clearly gone GT's way. Prasidh bowls the sixth, Jaiswal with a six and a four off the third and fourth balls.

He finishes the powerplay on 35 off 19, Sooryavanshi on 31 off 17.

Well this is not a good start from Siraj at all. This time he takes a pasting from Jaiswal. Sooryavanshi managed to go over mid off off the fifth ball from Rabada in the second over to make it 7 runs off it. Siraj then hangs up a length ball outside off first up, Jaiswal sends it over cover for six. Then Siraj goes back of a length on the pads, Jaiswal hits it past short fine leg for four. Siraj sprays the third ball wide down leg and then nails a hard length on leg stump. Jaiswal can only play it back to the bowler. Another hard length delivery outside off fourth ball, Jaiswal swings hards. Slices it a bit but it still goes over mid-off for four.

Then comes a potentially important moment in this match, Jaiswal tries to play the fifth ball fine, gets a nick and Buttler dives low to his right but can't make it stick. That was a dropped catch with Jaiswal on 16 off eight. He stays on 16 at the end of that over, Sooryavanshi on 14 off nine.

RR 32/0 in 3 overs

Well, we have seen Vaibhav Sooryavanshi taking Gujarat Titans to the cleaners. At the time, there was no Rabada in GT's bowling lineup. Can that make a difference today? We will see. For now, Sooryavanshi is walking out with Yashasvi Jaiswal, himself a prodigious young talent but a veteran compared to the former.

Rashid Khan: We wanted to bowl first. Gill has a muscle spasm, hopefully he will be back soon. KK (Kumar Kushagra) is playing his first game and look forward to see him play. We played good cricket in the last game as well. Was a good game. We need to bring out 100% here.

Riyan Parag: We are going to be batting first. We got to assess and adapt to different conditions. Hopefully we will put up a good score around 210 and defend it later on. We want to be a team that can play in all conditions. I want it to be a team that is flexible. We don't want to play one brand of cricket. We don't want to be a team that only scores or bowls for 200 runs or 250 runs. I think, like I said, I want us to assess the pitch, play through all conditions that the IPL offers to us, and be good at it. So I think that's the message. Two changes. Tushar Deshpande comes in for Brijesh and Shubham Dubey comes in for Bishnoi.

Riyan Parag says that Rajasthan Royals are batting first today.

Soooryavanshi has played just eight IPL matches thus far. He has scored 304 runs in them at an astonishing strike rate of 218.70 with a century and two half-centuries.

MI have finished their innings with a score of 162/6. Suryakumar scored 51 in 36 balls while Naman Dhir made 28 in 31. Mitchell Santner and Corbin Bosch provided some finishing touches but overall, it was a rather sluggish innings from MI? But, one can only truly judge a pitch after both sides have batted so let's see what DC get up to.

The two sides have faced each other eight times. Gujarat Titans have a 6-2 lead over Rajasthan Royals, and have dominated them even at the Narendra Modi Stadium, holding a 2-1 advantage.

Delhi Capitals have won the toss and chosen to bowl first and well, they are making Mumbai Indians sweat here. Vipraj Nigam dismissed Sherfane Rutherford in the 12th over and that has left MI 86/4 in 12 overs. Suryakumar Yadav, captain for the day in place of the injured Hardik Pandya, is out there with Naman Dhir and DC would know that as long as the former is around, MI have a chance at putting up a mountain at the Kotla.