On 24 May 2016, Royal Challengers Bangalore were 29 for 5 after 5.3 overs of a playoff chase at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. In every successful run chase across IPL playoffs from 2008 to 2025, no other side has been that low when its fifth wicket fell. The next-worst is 57. RCB were not merely in trouble in Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Lions; by every pattern the IPL had produced in nine seasons, the match was gone.
Thirteen overs later, AB de Villiers walked off with 79 not out from 47 balls, Iqbal Abdulla had hit three fours in a row off Dwayne Bravo, and RCB had won by four wickets with 10 balls to spare. The unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 91 from 52 balls sent RCB to their third IPL final. Ten years on, it remains the purest rescue act in the history of the competition's knockout cricket, and the night that showed why de Villiers was called the 360-degree batter.
The Night the Chinnaswamy Went Quiet, Then Exploded
Gujarat Lions: a first-season side that had topped the 2016 table
Gujarat Lions existed for only two seasons, 2016 and 2017, filling the gap while Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals served their suspensions. In 2016 they were no stopgap. Led by Suresh Raina, they won nine of their 14 league matches, more than any other side, and finished first. RCB, with eight wins, came second on net run rate. Qualifier 1 on 24 May 2016 matched the league's two best sides, with a direct place in the 29 May final at the same ground as the prize.
Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to field. His seamers made the call look clever straight away. Iqbal Abdulla, the left-arm spinner, bowled the second over and removed both Brendon McCullum and Aaron Finch in it. In the fourth over Shane Watson had Raina caught by Sreenath Aravind for 1 off nine balls. Gujarat Lions were 10 for 3 after four overs and 23 for 3 at the end of the powerplay.
Dwayne Smith's 73 lifts Gujarat to 158
What followed belonged to Dwayne Smith. The West Indian opener had come in at No. 5 and hit 73 from 41 balls with five fours and six sixes. He took Yuzvendra Chahal's 10th over for 16, including a six off its first ball, and added a 6 and a 4 in Iqbal Abdulla's 13th, which cost 17. With Dinesh Karthik (26 off 30) holding the other end, the pair added 84 for the fourth wicket before Chris Jordan bowled Karthik in the 14th over at 94.
Smith fell in the 17th over, caught by Kohli off Yuzvendra Chahal immediately after hitting him for six. Eklavya Dwivedi then hit Watson for two consecutive sixes in the 19th, and Watson answered by dismissing Dwivedi and Bravo off the next two balls. Gujarat Lions were all out for 158 off the final ball of the innings, when Dhawal Kulkarni was run out. Watson finished with 4 for 29, Jordan 2 for 26, Iqbal Abdulla 2 for 38.
On a Chinnaswamy pitch and with a batting order built around Kohli, de Villiers and Gayle, 159 looked a below-par target.
Dhawal Kulkarni's 4 for 14 and the collapse to 29 for 5
Then Dhawal Kulkarni bowled one of the great opening spells in IPL playoff history. In the second over he bowled Virat Kohli for a two-ball duck. This was the Kohli of 2016, who had come into the game with 919 runs and four centuries for the season. In the fourth over Kulkarni bowled Chris Gayle for 9 and, next ball, had KL Rahul caught by Smith for a first-ball duck. RCB's top three, who had scored nearly 1,450 runs between them in the 2016 league stage, had made nine.
Ravindra Jadeja had Watson caught by Smith in the fifth over, and in the sixth Kulkarni had Sachin Baby caught by Shadab Jakati for a three-ball duck. RCB were 29 for 5. Kulkarni finished with 4-0-14-4.
At 29 for 5, RCB needed 130 more from 87 balls with only Stuart Binny and the bowlers left. De Villiers had 12.
Binny's cameo, then the partnership nobody expected
Stuart Binny, the RCB No. 7, took the pressure off in the ninth over. Shadab Jakati's first over went for 18, with Binny hitting two fours and a six. When Jadeja trapped Binny lbw for 21 from 15 balls in the 10th over, RCB were 68 for 6. They needed 91 from 62 balls, and the next man in was Iqbal Abdulla, the left-arm spinner who had opened the bowling.
De Villiers had made 29 off 21 balls by the end of the 10th over. He had spent that time rotating strike, refusing to lift the ball and protecting Abdulla from Jadeja and Kulkarni. Gujarat Lions bowled out Kulkarni and Jadeja by the end of the 13th over and were left with Praveen Kumar, Bravo, Jakati and Smith's part-time medium pace for the last seven overs. At the end of the 14th over RCB were 96 for 6, needing 63 off 36 balls.
The last four overs: 60 runs
The 15th over, from Smith, went for 14: a de Villiers four and a six. Jakati's 16th went for 16, with a six from de Villiers and then, extraordinarily, a six from Abdulla. Praveen Kumar's 17th cost 12, including another de Villiers six and a four. Twenty-one were needed from 18 balls.
Bravo bowled the 18th. After a leg-bye four, a dot ball and a wide, de Villiers took a single, and Iqbal Abdulla hit Bravo for three fours in a row. Three runs were needed from the final two overs. De Villiers took a single off the first ball of the 19th over and Abdulla ran two off the second. RCB finished on 159 for 6 in 18.2 overs, and a ground that had gone silent at 29 for 5 erupted.
De Villiers scored 50 off the last 26 balls he faced. Abdulla made 33 not out from 25 with three fours and a six, the highest score of his IPL career; he had never previously made more than 20.
The Data Deep-Dive
The scorecard that matters
| Batter | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | How out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Gayle | 9 | 12 | 2 | 0 | b Kulkarni |
| Virat Kohli | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | b Kulkarni |
| AB de Villiers | 79* | 47 | 5 | 5 | not out |
| KL Rahul | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | c Smith b Kulkarni |
| Shane Watson | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | c Smith b Jadeja |
| Sachin Baby | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | c Jakati b Kulkarni |
| Stuart Binny | 21 | 15 | 2 | 1 | lbw b Jadeja |
| Iqbal Abdulla | 33* | 25 | 3 | 1 | not out |
RCB's top six managed 89 runs between them, and 79 of those were de Villiers'. The other five made 10.
| Gujarat Lions bowler | Overs | Runs | Wickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dhawal Kulkarni | 4 | 14 | 4 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 4 | 21 | 2 |
| Praveen Kumar | 3.2 | 32 | 0 |
| Dwayne Bravo | 3 | 26 | 0 |
| Shadab Jakati | 3 | 45 | 0 |
| Dwayne Smith | 1 | 14 | 0 |
Kulkarni and Jadeja bowled eight overs for 35 runs and six wickets. The other 6.2 overs went for 117 without a wicket. Raina had used up his best bowlers chasing the kill, and that decision is the hinge on which the match turned.
The lowest point of any winning IPL playoff chase
Score at the fall of the fifth wicket in every successful IPL playoff chase from 2008 to 2025 where five wickets fell, lowest first (Cricsheet ball-by-ball data):
| Season | Stage | Chasing side | Opponent | Score at 5th wicket | Final score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Qualifier 1 | RCB | Gujarat Lions | 29 (over 6) | 159/6 |
| 2018 | Qualifier 1 | CSK | SRH | 57 (over 12) | 140/8 |
| 2013 | Eliminator | Rajasthan Royals | SRH | 57 (over 10) | 135/6 |
| 2016 | Qualifier 2 | SRH | Gujarat Lions | 84 (over 13) | 163/6 |
| 2019 | Eliminator | Delhi Capitals | SRH | 111 (over 15) | 165/8 |
The 2016 Qualifier 1 is so far below the others that it is in a category of its own. The second-best rescue, Faf du Plessis's unbeaten 67 for Chennai Super Kings against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2018 Qualifier 1, began with 28 more runs on the board. Gujarat Lions appear twice in the top four: three days after Bangalore, Sunrisers chased 163 against them in Qualifier 2 from 84 for 5. Their 2016 season ended there.
RCB's 2016 run-in: from 2–5 to the final
| Phase | Matches | Won | Lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| First 7 league games (12 April – 2 May 2016) | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| Last 7 league games (7 – 22 May 2016) | 7 | 6 | 1 |
| Qualifier 1 vs Gujarat Lions (24 May 2016) | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Final vs SRH (29 May 2016) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Qualifier 1 was the seventh win in eight games for a side that had been 2–5 on 2 May 2016. Ten days before the qualifier, RCB had beaten Gujarat Lions by 144 runs at the same ground, with de Villiers and Kohli both scoring hundreds. That win made the 29 for 5 all the more surprising, and the rescue all the more characteristic.
Legacy: What the 2016 Qualifier 1 Means for IPL Cricket Now
The final, five days later, went the other way. Sunrisers Hyderabad beat RCB by eight runs at the Chinnaswamy on 29 May 2016, Ben Cutting was named Player of the Match, and Kohli's 973-run season ended without a trophy. Our 2016 final reconstruction and the full IPL 2016 season deep-dive tell that story. The qualifier is why RCB were there at all.
The innings did three things that outlived it. First, it settled the case for de Villiers as the IPL's greatest finisher outside a specialist No. 6. He finished with more than 5,100 IPL runs and retired in November 2021 without a title, which makes his best night in RCB colours a knockout win rather than a final. Second, it changed how analysts talk about lower-order batting. Abdulla's 33 not out is a clean illustration of why a No. 8 who can survive 20 balls and then swing has real value in a T20 knockout. Third, it framed the long RCB story that ended with their first title in IPL 2025: nine more years of near-misses, built around Kohli and, until 2021, de Villiers.
There is also a sharp echo in Gujarat's name. Gujarat Lions disappeared after 2017, and Gujarat Titans, a separate franchise founded in 2022, now carry the state's colours. On 26 May 2026 RCB met a Gujarat side in Qualifier 1 again and beat Gujarat Titans by 92 runs, a scoreline as one-sided as the 2016 game was tight.
This is the kind of match that keeps a forecaster honest. CricMind's Oracle prices every live game ball by ball, and at 29 for 5 chasing 159 any calibrated model would have given RCB a slim chance. Slim is not zero. The Oracle publishes its calibration record because a model that says 10% should be wrong one time in ten, and the night at the Chinnaswamy in 2016 is what that one time looks like. Every live call it makes is on the predictions page.
Three Takeaways
- The score was 29 for 5 and the outcome was a four-wicket win. In 2008–2025 IPL playoff cricket, no other successful chase survived its fifth wicket at fewer than 57 runs.
- Kulkarni's 4 for 14 was wasted by what came after it. Gujarat Lions bowled their two best bowlers out by the 13th over, and the remaining 6.2 overs went for 117.
- De Villiers won the match by waiting. He made 29 off his first 21 balls while wickets fell and 50 off his last 26, with Iqbal Abdulla supplying the most important 33 of his career.
FAQ
Who won the IPL 2016 Qualifier 1?
Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Gujarat Lions by four wickets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, on 24 May 2016. Chasing 159, RCB reached 159 for 6 in 18.2 overs.
How many did AB de Villiers score in the 2016 Qualifier 1?
AB de Villiers made 79 not out from 47 balls, with five fours and five sixes, and was named Player of the Match. He shared an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 91 from 52 balls with Iqbal Abdulla.
What was RCB's score when the fifth wicket fell?
RCB were 29 for 5 after 5.3 overs, needing 130 from 87 balls. That is the lowest score at the fall of the fifth wicket in any successful IPL playoff chase from 2008 to 2025.
Who took four wickets for Gujarat Lions?
Dhawal Kulkarni took 4 for 14 in four overs, dismissing Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, KL Rahul and Sachin Baby. Ravindra Jadeja took 2 for 21.
Who top-scored for Gujarat Lions?
Dwayne Smith scored 73 from 41 balls with five fours and six sixes. Gujarat Lions were bowled out for 158 in 20 overs, and Shane Watson took 4 for 29 for RCB.
Did RCB win the IPL in 2016?
No. After the qualifier win RCB lost the 29 May 2016 final to Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight runs at the same ground. RCB won their first IPL title in 2025.
Are Gujarat Lions the same team as Gujarat Titans?
No. Gujarat Lions played only in 2016 and 2017. Gujarat Titans are a separate franchise that joined the IPL in 2022 and won the title in their first season.