Sai Sudharsan was dismissed hit wicket in the third over of Gujarat Titans' chase of 255 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Qualifier 1 at Dharamshala on May 26, 2026.
Sudharsan had just cut a Jacob Duffy delivery to the boundary and returned for a single when his bat slipped from his hands, ricocheted onto the stumps and dislodged the bails; he finished with 14 runs off 9 balls.
The dismissal was immediately consequential: Gujarat Titans needed 255 to win and lost one of their most trusted batters before the powerplay had properly settled. Sportstar reported this was the second time Sudharsan had been out hit wicket in the IPL and said he became the first player in IPL history to be dismissed hit wicket twice.
That statistic landed alongside a sharp top-order collapse. India.com reported Shubman Gill was dismissed for 2 off 7 balls by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Open Magazine recorded that Jos Buttler fell for 29 as Gujarat slumped to 51 for 3 in 4.5 overs. By 5.1 overs, Open Magazine had the Titans 51 for 4; at the time of filing it said the score had sunk to 62 for 5 in 7.3 overs, with Jason Holder out for a first-ball duck, caught at mid-on.
Those figures are the weight of the moment: a chase that began with promise was unraveled inside seven overs. Sudharsan's hit-wicket — a rare and awkward form of dismissal — removed the Orange Cap holder and Gujarat's most reliable run-scorer this season at a phase when partnerships were essential to bridge the asking rate to 255.
Social media responses underlined the oddity of the dismissal. One X user mocked the sequence as a comedy of errors, noting that the ball had gone to the boundary while the bat flew back to uproot the bails; another called the sequence “hilarious,” lamenting that such a mistake was the last thing a team wanted to see in the playoffs. The reaction captured the broader bewilderment in the stands and on broadcasts: an unforced, mechanical error startling in its timing.
There is a friction here between the narrative of Sudharsan as Gujarat's linchpin this season and the manner of his exit. The IPL has seen few hit-wicket dismissals; the timeline also shows that Gujarat experienced a hit-wicket dismissal in the 2025 season when Kusal Mendis was out that way in the Eliminator against Mumbai Indians. Yet Sportstar's note that Sudharsan is the first player to be dismissed hit wicket twice in IPL history adds an extra, almost freakish dimension to tonight's collapse.
Gujarat's scoreboard positions — 51 for 3 at 4.5 overs, 51 for 4 at 5.1 overs, and 62 for 5 at 7.3 overs — leave little room for a straightforward recovery chasing 255. With the top order fragmented and the required run rate climbing, the match swung decisively toward Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the early overs at Dharamshala.
This dismissal will be remembered less for the runs Sudharsan scored and more for how quickly it shifted the game's balance: a bat slipping, bails flying, and a heavy playoff chase unraveling before the innings had found its shape. For Gujarat Titans, the question now is whether any middle-order rescue is on its way; for Sudharsan, who has shouldered the batting this season, it is a rare and costly misstep at the worst possible time.
