Till June 2, 2025, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were the team that couldn't win the IPL. Now, a year on, they are back-to-back IPL winners. Here's the story of their success in IPL 2026 in numbers.
3 - RCB became only the third team in the IPL to defend their title, joining Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in 2011 and Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2020 to the milestone.
Overall, RCB are now only the fourth team with multiple IPL titles, after MI and CSK, with five each , and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who have three.
1 - Rajat Patidar became the first captain to win titles in each of his first two seasons. Overall, he is only the third captain to win back-to-back titles, following MS Dhoni (2010 and 2011) and Rohit Sharma (2019 and 2020).
25 - Balls Virat Kohli took to complete his fifty against Gujarat Titans (GT) in the final, his fastest in the IPL. His previous fastest was off 26 balls against Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) and Rajasthan Royals (RR), both in 2018. Kohli's 25-ball fifty is also the joint-fourth-fastest by any batter in an IPL final.
22 - Player-of-the-Match awards for Kohli in the IPL, the most among Indians, surpassing Rohit's tally of 21. Overall, only AB de Villiers (25) is ahead of Kohli, while Chris Gayle also has 22. Kohli's award on Sunday was his first in a playoff (or knockout) match in the IPL.
88.00 - Percentage of Kohli's 75 runs scored on the leg side, by far the highest proportion for any of his 50-plus scores in the IPL. He scored only nine runs on the off side on Sunday, and none of those came until he was on 38. Overall, only seven 50-plus scores in the IPL had a higher percentage of runs scored through the leg side than this one.
88 - Runs that Kohli scored off Kagiso Rabada in IPL 2026, the most by any batter off a single bowler in an IPL season, bettering Ishan Kishan's 74 runs off Jofra Archer, also in 2026. Kohli hit a total of 18 boundaries off the 37 balls against Rabada this season, with 14 fours and four sixes.
5-0 - Krunal Pandya's win-loss record as a player in IPL finals. Only Rohit and Ambati Rayudu, with six each, have been part of more wins in IPL finals than Krunal. Josh Hazlewood has also won all three IPL finals and all six T20 finals he has played in.
Only three players, besides Krunal and Hazlewood, have been part of three or more IPL finals and won all of them: Rohit (6), Jasprit Bumrah (3), and Suryakumar Yadav (3).
16 - Total players used by RCB throughout this IPL, the fewest they have had in a season. Overall, only three teams used fewer players in an IPL season - 14 by CSK in 2015, 15 by MI in 2018 and 2020.
Since the inception of the Impact Player in 2023, no other team has used fewer than 18 players in a season.
28 - Wickets for Bhuvneshwar Kumar in IPL 2026, the joint second-most by an Indian in a season. Harshal Patel's 32 in 2021 are the most, while Mohammed Shami also took 28 in 2023.
Rabada edged Bhuvneshwar to claim the purple cap for the second time with 29 wickets. He joins Dwayne Bravo, Bhuvneshwar and Harshal to win the purple cap twice.
37y 207d - Kohli's age on Sunday, making him the second-oldest player to be the Player of the Match in an IPL final. Anil Kumble was 38 years and 219 days old when he won the award in the 2009 final.
3 for 27 - Rasikh Salam's bowling figures on Sunday are the second-best for an uncapped player in an IPL final, behind Karanveer Singh's 4 for 54 against KKR in 2014.