Sawai Mansingh Stadium – Beneath the echoing halogen glare, Shubman Gill (84, 44b, 9×4, 3×6) and Sai Sudarshan (55, 36b, 6×4, 2×6) batted with dementor-like cool efficiency; The Rabada-Siraj combination turned the powerplay into a high-velocity ambush, and Rashid Khan’s stump-bound mid-over alchemy helped Rajasthan Royals beat Rajasthan Royals by 77 runs in their IPL 2026 clash at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Saturday. Chasing 230, RR kept losing wickets and struggled to stay in the hunt.
Mohammed Siraj’s 147 kmph short ball climbed high off the surface, dismissing Vaibhav Suryavanshi (36) early. Kagiso Rabada troubled Yashasvi Jaiswal (three) with a 152 kmph bouncer, forcing him to take a catch.
Rashid returned to his hyper-kinetic Hornet mode, offering neither loops nor parabolic flight. He took the ball out of the deck, seeking out the stumps with street-smart, predatory appetite.
He dismissed Dhruv Jurel (24), Donovan Ferreira (4) and Shubham Dubey (15) and trapped Ravindra Jadeja (38) in front. Before that, Gill was, as he often is, an honest study in vertical grace. No brutal hacks or bare-knuckle blows for him.
His shift was the magic of the midnight child, the magic of time. This was signature Gill: late-season clarity, glass-cut contact, velvet-glove punch, and thread-through precision. When Tushar Deshpande hit hard, Gill came down and hit it past backward point for a four.
Jofra Archer went short outside off and he stood on his toes and took the ball between point and cover for four runs. Two balls later, planted on the front foot and making the creator’s name shine, he brilliantly smashed Archer for a six over mid-off.
Then Archer was driven straight over his head, Brijesh Sharma creamed it at mid-off, and even Jadeja was charged and carved over extra cover for a four. A reverse against Yash Raj in the short over for four and an extra cover six off Brijesh only completed the exhibition. Sai Sudarshan, on the other hand, was an honest study with cool proportions.
It was absolutely cool craft, calibration of touch and movement. It was the distillation of Sai Sudarshan: clarity of initial reading, eye-down contact, risk-shaving control, and leisurely accumulation.