Royal Challengers Bengaluru successfully defended their IPL title, defeating Gujarat Titans by five wickets in the 2026 final. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi secured the Orange Cap with a record-breaking 776 runs for the season. In a thrilling conclusion to the individual awards, Kagiso Rabada claimed the Purple Cap with 29 wickets.
The IPL 2026 has come to a conclusion with Royal Challengers Bengaluru successfully defending their maiden triumph with a five-wicket win over the Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday, May 31.
RCB became just the third team, after the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, to successfully defend their IPL title in the history of the tournament. The Rajat Patidar-led side entered the high-stakes final with a weight of expectation but displayed championship poise, dismantling the Gujarat Titans' bowling lineup in a clinical chase.
Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 75-run knock and a vital cameo from Tim David in the middle-order proved instrumental in chasing down the target, cementing the team's legacy as a dominant force in the league.
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Who Took Home the Orange Cap?
As the celebrations erupt in Bengaluru, the focus now shifts to the individual accolades that defined a record-breaking season for the ages. The anticipation was around the Orange Cap winner, as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shubman Gill, and Sai Sudharsan were in the race heading into the summit clash in Ahmedabad.
Eventually, Sooryavanshi emerged as the winner of the Orange Cap, thanks to his record-breaking IPL season, wherein he amassed 776 runs, including a century and 5 fifties, at an average of 48.50 and a strike rate of 237.30 in 15 matches, cementing his status as one of the most explosive and consistent run-getters in the history of the league.
Gill (732) and Sudharsan (722) finished second and third, respectively, while Virat Kohli (675) rounded out the top four scorers of the tournament.
Sunrisers Hyderabad's explosive batters, Heinrich Klaasen (624) and Ishan Kishan (602) completed the list of the season's top run-getters, rounding out the top six and highlighting the incredible depth of batting talent on display throughout the 2026 campaign.
The likes of KL Rahul (593), Abhishek Sharma (563), Mitchell Marsh (563), Jos Buttler (526), Dhruv Jurel (515), Prabhsimran Singh (510), and Rajat Patidat (501) also enjoyed prolific seasons, each crossing the 500-run mark to further underline the high-scoring nature of the 2026 IPL, where batting depth became the defining factor for success.
Who Won the Purple Cap?
Apart from the Orange Cap, the Purple Cap was awarded to the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. Just like the race for the Orange Cap, the battle for the Purple Cap was a high-stakes affair that remained undecided until the very final match of the season.
RCB pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar levelled with GT speedster Kagiso Rabada with 28 wickets after two scalps in the first innings, and the latter was on the verge of claiming the prestigious individual honour due to his economy rate. However, Rabada managed to take a crucial late wicket in the final, finishing the tournament with 29 wickets and edging out Bhuvneshwar, who finished second with 28, to claim the Purple Cap.
Jofra Acher (25), Rashid Khan (21), and Anshul Kamboj (21) finished third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, in the list of the season's top wicket-takers, underscoring their pivotal roles in their respective teams' campaigns.
The likes of Eshan Malinga (21), Rasikh Salam Dar (19), Mohammed Siraj (19), Kartik Tyagi (18), Jason Holder (17), Prince Yadav (16), and Prasidh Krishna (16), completed the list of the season's top wicket-takers, highlighting the formidable bowling depth that characterised the 2026 IPL season.
Six bowlers with 20 and above wickets, and 10 with 15 or more wickets, demonstrated the immense competitive depth of the 2026 season, marking it as one of the most balanced tournaments in recent memory, where bowlers frequently turned the tide in high-scoring encounters.
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