One of the exciting finishes of the Indian Premier League 2026 was scripted by Royal Challengers Bengaluru when they edged past Mumbai Indians by two wickets on the last ball in a dramatic contest at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium. The win broke RCB’s two-match losing streak, and took them to the top of the IPL 2026 points table while also knocking Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants out of playoff contention.
After recovering from a tardy start, Mumbai Indians scored 166 for 7 in their 20 overs batting first. Ryan Rickelton, Rohit Sharma, and Suryakumar Yadav were sent packing by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in a fiery opening spell as MI slipped to 28 for 3. This was followed by a match-winning partnership of 82-runs, as Tilak Varma scored an excellent half-century with 57 along with Naman Dhir’s contribution of 47. Bhuvneshwar was back for the final overs and returned figures of 4 for 23.
RCB run-chasing 167 on a two-paced wicket got off to a horrendous start when Virat Kohli was out first ball. But then, Krunal Pandya kept his head and played the innings of 73 (46). Krunal also hit a few more boundaries and sixes to keep RCB in the hunt after battling cramps towards the end. There was a useful little afternoon knock from Jitesh Sharma–18 off 20 balls.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar hit a boundary each in the last over which helped RCB gather nine runs off three balls. Rasikh Salam and Bhuvneshwar somehow managed to steal the second run off the last delivery after a fumble in the field, winning that thriller by 1 wicket.
Krunal Pandya was later declared Player of the Match for contributing with an even more glorious all-round batting effort, in a near-perfect example of where one would point to as the sizzliest finish – if IPL 2026 ever held on to such a thing.
