Six months ago, Rajat Patidar wasn’t even RCB’s first-choice captain. He was an emergency promotion — a long-time squad member handed the armband when the franchise ran out of obvious options. The man who hit 93 off 33 in Qualifier 1 of IPL 2026 in Dharamsala on Monday, the most destructive innings in IPL playoff history, was supposed to be a placeholder.
About that placeholder thing.
33 Balls. 9 Sixes. One Dot Ball.
That’s not a typo. In a 33-ball innings, Patidar faced exactly one delivery he didn’t score off. The ball came from Prasidh Krishna. Everything else got the treatment — 5 fours, 9 sixes, strike rate 281.81, finishing on 93 not out.
He got to fifty in 21 balls. Joint-fourth fastest in IPL playoff history. Then he hit another 43 in 12 deliveries, breaking Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s record for the fastest 90+ score the IPL has ever produced. With his third six of the night, he became the fastest Indian to 200 T20 sixes — 105 innings, faster than any India-capped batter has managed it.
RCB ended on 254/5. Highest total ever in IPL playoffs. GT, the franchise that walked into this game with what most analysts called the tournament’s best bowling attack, was left holding an empty plan.
About that plan.
GT’s “Best Attack of the Tournament” Had Nothing
For eight straight matches before this one, GT had opened with the same blueprint — Siraj from one end, Rabada from the other. On Monday, they deviated. They didn’t have to wait long to learn why that was a terrible idea.
Patidar’s first 30 came inside the powerplay. By the time GT recalibrated to Mohammad Shami and the back-end bowlers, the game was already a write-off. RCB posted 76/1 in the first six. GT, when their turn came, slumped to 51/5 in their own powerplay. Jos Buttler bowled by Hazlewood, the top order dismantled before the lights had warmed up. The match was decided before the second strategic timeout. GT eventually folded for 162, 92 runs short — the chase effectively ending inside the powerplay.
The supporting cast did exactly what the script asked. Virat Kohli added 43 calm runs at the top, Devdutt Padikkal chipped in 30, Krunal Pandya threw 43 in the back end. None of it would matter without the man at the other end — but it gave Patidar the runway to bat like someone who didn’t believe in dot balls.
So who is this guy?
From Madhya Pradesh Understudy to the Innings of His Life
Patidar’s road to this Monday goes through years of Ranji and Syed Mushtaq Ali — 428 runs in 9 innings last domestic season at an average of 61 and a strike rate of 186. He was a quiet RCB squad regular, never a marquee buy, never a face on the franchise’s promo reels. When he was handed the captaincy ahead of 2025, half the cricket internet asked why.
Then he won them their first IPL title. The franchise that had spent 18 years getting to four finals and losing each one finally had a trophy. And the next question started before the confetti had been swept — was it a fluke? Was Patidar a one-season captain?
Monday was the answer. Nine sixes long.
What This Means for May 31
RCB are now in their second straight final. Their fifth overall. Only two franchises in IPL history have won back-to-back titles — Mumbai Indians in 2019-20 and CSK in 2010-11. RCB get their shot at being the third on May 31 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The opposition is still being decided in the Eliminator and Qualifier 2 bracket — whichever side survives that gauntlet is also the side that has to bowl to a man who just turned the playoff record book into a doorstop. And with Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 21-wicket comeback season holding the bowling together at the other end, RCB aren’t a one-trick show either.
Rajat Patidar’s 93 in Qualifier 1 IPL 2026 wasn’t just a match-winning knock — it was a franchise-defining one. If the IPL 2026 season awards had a category for franchise-defining innings, this one wraps it early. Six months ago, he was the captain nobody picked. Five days from now, he’s the captain every bowling coach is staying up late watching footage of. Defending the title isn’t a burden if you treat it like fuel.
He just lit the match.