Gujarat Titans (GT) was defeated heavily by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the 2026 qualifier match in IPL by 92 runs. Captain of the latter, Rajat Patidar, stole the show with a knock of 93 from just 33 deliveries that consisted of five boundaries and nine maximums. The GT might have had a better chance of victory had they not dropped a catch from Patidar at the beginning.

Rajat Patidar was on 14 runs off 10 balls in a match against RCB when he was dropped. The big turning point of the match came during the 14th over, bowled by Prasidh Krishna, in which Patidar lifted the delivery with the bat, making it hard for Jos Buttler and Kulwant Khejroliya. Patidar then displayed a remarkable performance, scoring 93 runs off 33 balls.

It's worth noting that Gujarat Titans made the same mistake in their 29-run defeat against the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 60th match of the league stage. Allen was on 33 runs off 17 balls when Mohammed Siraj dropped Finn Allen's catch off Jason Holder's over. Allen then adopted a very aggressive approach, scoring 93 runs off just 35 balls, helping KKR post a mammoth total of 247.

The same mistake was repeated in Gujarat Titans' last two defeats, and the batsmen capitalized on it. Had GT's fielder not dropped a catch against KKR, GT would have topped the points table. Furthermore, if the catch hadn't been dropped against RCB, they would have qualified for the final by now. GT will need to avoid a similar mistake in Qualifier 2, or they will be eliminated from the tournament.