Gujarat Titans' Qualifier 1 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru turned on a moment so strange it almost stopped the game in Dharamsala. Sai Sudharsan was dismissed hit wicket in the third over on May 26, 2026, after his bat flew out of his hands during a cut shot and crashed back into the stumps.
Facing RCB seamer Jacob Duffy, Sudharsan sliced toward the off side and set off for a run almost immediately after making contact. The force of the shot took the bat from his grip, and it spun backward into the stumps, dislodging the bails in one of the most bizarre dismissals seen in IPL history. Gujarat lost five wickets in the powerplay after that blow, and the innings never recovered.
The dismissal summed up Gujarat's night. Luck did not favor the Shubman Gill-led side at HPCA Stadium, where RCB had already built pressure with the bat and then kept the Titans on the back foot with the ball. The freak exit was only one part of a larger collapse that left Gujarat chasing the match early.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru were powered to 254/5 in the first innings, with Rajat Patidar unbeaten on 93. Patidar had been handed a reprieve when a catch was dropped while he was on 20 off 17 balls, and he made Gujarat pay for it with a commanding finish. That missed chance became one of the defining moments of the night, because it helped turn a strong position into a daunting total.
For Gujarat, the real damage came in layers: a surreal dismissal, a powerplay collapse and a scoreboard that kept climbing. For RCB, the margin for error disappeared once Patidar survived that early chance, and the Titans were blown away before they could settle into the chase. In a qualifier, that kind of sequence does more than shape an innings. It can shape the whole match.
