Vikram Solanki, the director of cricket for Gujarat Titans, said that the team “miscalculated” a suitable score on the Narendra Modi Stadium surface in Ahmedabad, which resulted in a five-wicket loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Sunday in the IPL 2026 final.
RCB chased down the target in 18 overs to win their second consecutive IPL title, after Titans were restricted to an underwhelming 155/8.
“I think we probably just made a slight miscalculation actually of what score was appropriate on that pitch. I don’t think it was a 200-plus pitch. If we had got somewhere around that 180 mark, I think that would have been a challenging total for them to chase,” PTI quoted Solanki as saying in the post-match press conference.
Solanki lamented that GT’s final score of 155/8 fell at least 25 runs short of a target that could be defended.
“I think we were probably 20-25 runs short, but it was exceptional to see the fight and the hunger the guys showed to bring that game to close to the finish. We had an opportunity to challenge RCB in parts but they were the better side today and I think that’s just as simple as it is,” he said.
However, despite GT’s busy schedule over the past few days and the loss in the title match, Solanki gave RCB the credit they deserved. Before their trip to Ahmedabad on Saturday was postponed due to bad weather, GT played in the Qualifier 2 on Friday at Dharamsala.
“As far as our campaign is concerned we’re immensely proud as a group of what we’ve achieved, there’s no question we would have liked to have gone one step further. But the fact is that RCB have beaten us and we must be strong enough and hold our heads up high in being proud of the campaign that we’ve put together, yet also be gracious enough to congratulate RCB,” he said.
RCB batting stalwart Virat Kohli was praised by Solanki for another match-winning innings, this time scoring an undefeated 75 off 42 balls.
“Virat…we’re all privileged to see good players play and Virat is an exceptional player. He played a great knock for his team. I’m probably not celebrating that knock right now. Virat played obviously very well to sort of almost anchor that chase and guide that chase as he did,” he added.
