Delhi: Gujarat Titans (GT) veteran fast bowler Kagiso Rabada made a big record in his name in the Qualifier-1 match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. In this important match played against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Rabada created a new history in terms of taking wickets during the powerplay. Leaving behind Mohammed Shami’s record, he achieved the distinction of becoming the bowler who took the most wickets in the first six overs in a season of IPL.

Rabada’s new record in powerplay

In the match played at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Kagiso Rabada got Venkatesh Iyer caught out by captain Shubman Gill on the last ball of the second over of RCB’s innings. This was his 18th wicket in the powerplay this season. With this he broke the record of Shami, who had taken 17 wickets in the powerplay in IPL 2023.

In this list, Australia’s Mitchell Johnson and New Zealand’s Trent Boult are jointly at third place.

Both the bowlers had taken 16-16 wickets within the first six overs of their respective seasons.

Rabada increased the number of wickets

In Qualifier-1, Kagiso Rabada bowled brilliantly and took 2 wickets. After this performance, his total number of wickets in IPL 2026 has reached 26. Apart from him, Jason Holder also took 2 wickets, while Prasidh Krishna got one success.

Rajat Patidar’s explosive captaincy innings

After winning the toss and opting to bat first, Royal Challengers Bangalore set a huge target of 255 runs for Gujarat Titans.

Team captain Rajat Patidar batted in a stormy style and scored unbeaten 93 runs in just 33 balls. His innings included 9 sixes and 5 fours.

Virat Kohli and Krunal Pandya also made important contributions. Both the batsmen played an important role in taking the team to a strong score by scoring 43-43 runs.

Big competition in the race for the final

The team that wins Qualifier-1 will directly make it to the final of IPL 2026 to be held on May 31. At the same time, the losing team will get one more chance and will have to play Qualifier-2 on May 29. In that match, it will face the team that wins the eliminator match.

In this match, Gujarat Titans team took the field under the captaincy of Shubman Gill with players like Sai Sudarshan, Jos Buttler, Washington Sundar, Nishant Sindhu, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Kulwant Khejroliya, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.

On the other hand, Rajat Patidar was handling the command of Royal Challengers Bangalore. The team included Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma, Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jacob Duffy, Josh Hazlewood and Rasikh Salam Dar.