On Friday night, when New Chandigarh lights up to host Qualifier 2 of IPL 2026, two teams with a lot of similarities yet poles apart in their philosophy will come face to face for the ticket to the final.
Gujarat Titans (GT), who are coming off a defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Qualifier 1, and Rajasthan Royals (RR), who beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Eliminator, have plenty in common. Both rely heavily on their top three, both have a weak middle order, and both have incisive new-ball pairs. But their approach to the game could not have been more different.
Even in the age of the Impact Player, GT’s openers, Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan, prefer a low-risk approach to collect their runs. Their scoring rate in the powerplay this season has been 9.66, which puts them in the bottom half. They are happy with just-above-par totals and back their bowling unit to defend those.
RR, meanwhile, are led by the 15-year-old phenom Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who tries to send every ball over the boundary. Gill and Sai Sudharsan combined have hit 59 sixes this season; Sooryavanshi alone has smashed 65. Even with Yashasvi Jaiswal not at his best, RR’s run rate of 11.66 in the first six overs has been the best in the tournament.
GT are really vulnerable when a team posts a well-above-par total batting first. RCB did that in Qualifier 1 with 254 for 5, after which GT had little chance. Another team capable of doing that is RR – they did it against SRH in the Eliminator with 243 for 8. While GT’s bowling attack is much stronger than SRH’s, if Sooryavanshi gets going, it will not be easy to stop him and RR.
That brings us to the toss. The chasing teams have a 43-27 win-loss record this season (excluding a tie and a washout). However, both playoff games so far have been won by the team batting first. In fact, when it comes to the knockouts, it has been pretty even-stevens across the IPL’s 19 seasons: 36-35 in favour of the team batting first.
Therefore, if the coin lands in RR’s favour on Friday, they might consider batting first and batting GT out of the game. Moreover, the match will be played on the same pitch where the Eliminator was held. So chasing might not be easy on a worn-out surface with little dew expected.
