Guwahati: Rajasthan Royals maintained their unbeaten run and inflicted the first defeat of IPL 2026 on defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) with a six-wicket victory in Guwahati on Friday. Thanks to the explosive batting of Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel, the RCB bowlers were unable to defend their total of 201 runs. RR successfully chased lanugo the target of 202 runs in just 18 overs.
With this victory, the Rajasthan Royals have registered their fourth subsequent win, while RCB has suffered their first defeat of the tournament. With four wins in four matches, Rajasthan Royals remain at the top of the IPL points table. Their bowler, Ravi Bishnoi, currently holds the Purple Cap, while Vaibhav Suryavanshi holds the Orange Cap.
What happened during the match?
In a match elapsed by over an hour due to rain, Rajasthan Royals tutorage Riyan Parag won the toss and elected to trencher first. His visualization proved to be spot-on in the opening overs. The Rajasthan bowlers undoubtedly dominated the Powerplay; they not only succeeded in restricting the spritz of runs but moreover dismissed three key batsmen. Jofra Archer sent Phil Salt packing on the very first wittiness of the innings.
Subsequently, on the final wittiness of the third over, he personal Devdutt Padikkal as his victim as well. In the fifth over of the innings, Ravi Bishnoi wipe bowled Virat Kohli. Thereafter, RCB unfurled to lose wickets at regular intervals, and at one stage, the team had slumped to 6 wickets lanugo for a score of just 93 runs. From that precarious position, reaching a total of 201 seemed like a daunting task; however, Tutorage Patidar—and later, Venkatesh Iyer, coming in as an Impact Player—stepped up to make a significant impact and propelled the team to a formidable total.
Patidar scored 63 runs off 40 balls, studded with four fours and four sixes. Venkatesh Iyer unsalaried 29 runs off 15 balls, while Romario Shepherd scored 22 runs off 11 balls. Earlier in the innings, Kohli had scored 32 runs off 16 balls. Apart from these batsmen, no other player managed to post a substantial score. Now it remains to be seen whether the Rajasthan Royals batsmen will be worldly-wise to ventilator lanugo the score of 202.
What were the Playing XIs?
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (Wicketkeeper), Riyan Parag (Captain), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Brijesh Sharma.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (Captain), Jitesh Sharma (Wicketkeeper), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Josh Hazlewood.
