Royal Challengers Bengaluru restricted Gujarat Titans to 155 in IPL 2026 final thanks to special bowling effort by Rasikh Salam Dar on Sunday.
Published: May 31, 2026, 9:56 PM IST
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RCB’s Virat Kohli celebrates a wicket with Rasikh Salam Dar (left) in IPL 2026 match vs GT. (Photo: IANS)
RCB vs GT IPL 2026 Final: Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Rajat Patidar won the toss and managed to restrict 2022 winners Gujarat Titans to only 155 for 8 in 20 overs in the IPL 2026 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Much of the credit for RCB’s brilliant bowling show against the ‘home side’ lies with Jammu & Kashmir pacer Rasikh Salam Dar, who ended up with brilliant figures of 3/27 in 4 overs including the wickets of Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan to emerge as pick of the bowlers for the defending champions.
However, the future looked rather bleak for Salam till a few years back. Back in 2019, he had faced a two-year ban from BCCI due to an age-fudging controversy. He served the ban, came back in 2022 but got injured once again.
He got a second lease of life in his career, when Royal Challengers Bengaluru bought him for Rs 6 crore in IPL 2025 mega auction and retained him for the same price ahead of this season. And Salam returned the favour for the champions in stunning fashion, ending IPL 2026 season as their second highest wicket-taker with 19 wickets in 12 matches at an average of 21.31 only behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who will end his campaign with 28 wickets.
WATCH Rasikh Salam dismiss GT batters Nishant Sindhu and Rahul Tewatia HERE…
How good has Rasikh Dar been this season?
Two impressive scalps to halt #GT ✌️
Updates ▶️ https://t.co/Yz6K3q6w0X#TATAIPL | #Final | #TheFinalLeap | #RCBvGT pic.twitter.com/FHzCg1UGSv
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 31, 2026
Even RCB captain Rajat Patidar acknowledged the fact that bowlers like Rasikh Salam and Josh Hazlewood have been the backbones of his side’s bowling attack this season after Bhuvneshwar Kumar. “When you have top bowlers like Bhuvi and Hazlewood, you still need support from the other bowlers as well. The way Rasikh has come in and contributed to the team, providing those breakthroughs, has been important. You cannot win a competition or a match with just one or two bowlers. The way Rasikh has bowled throughout the tournament has been superb and it has really helped the team,” Patidar said in the pre-match press conference on Saturday.
Rasikh Salam recalls comeback from injury
The Jammu and Kashmir pacer had been ruled out of entire IPL 2022 season due to serious lower-back injury. “Life changes. It won’t run smoothly. Ups and downs will come. Whatever happened, happened. It was tough because if you can’t play cricket, it’s very difficult to leave it. I didn’t play for those two years. I couldn’t change that. It wasn’t in my hands. My focus was on just improving myself. Two years is a big gap, so I had a lot of time,” Salam said about hitting ‘rock bottom’ on RCB’s Bold Diaries.
“When I went back to play for my state, my body felt a bit rusty. The way my body used to move before, it wasn’t like that. That year I got selected for KKR. After playing for two matches, I got out again because I had a back injury. I felt that why was this happening to me. I tried to get better quickly. If a recovery from injury takes 7 months, I would try for six. After 3 months, I got injured again and that is when I stopped hurrying,” Rasikh recalled.
