Only two franchises in Indian Premier League history have won the title in their first season, and they happen to keep running into each other. Rajasthan Royals did it in 2008; Gujarat Titans matched the feat in 2022, beating the Royals in the final at Ahmedabad. That shared lineage gives this fixture a resonance few IPL matchups can claim. GT lead the head-to-head 6–3 across nine meetings, a margin built largely on a perfect 2022. Yet the ledger is tilting. RR have won three of the last six, powered by 14-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's record 101* off 38 in 2025 and a six-run thriller in April 2026.

Two Debut Champions, Fourteen Years Apart

Sporting rivalries are usually forged by geography, by money or by years of accumulated grievance. This one was forged by a coincidence of history. When Gujarat Titans walked into the IPL as a brand-new franchise in 2022 and walked out with the trophy, they joined a club that had exactly one member: Rajasthan Royals, the surprise winners of the inaugural 2008 edition. Those remain the only two sides to lift the title in their debut campaign.

The symmetry would be a footnote if the two had never met when it mattered. Instead, GT completed their fairy tale by beating RR in the 2022 IPL Final, a match that now sits among the most historic nights the tournament has produced. One debut champion handed the crown to the next, on the newcomer's home ground, in front of a six-figure crowd.

Since then, the fixture has matured into something more competitive and, frankly, more entertaining. GT carry a 6–3 head-to-head lead, but that edge is anchored almost entirely in their dominant first season. Rajasthan have answered with some of the most memorable performances the league has seen, none bigger than Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's 101* against GT in 2025, delivered when he was just 14 years old. What follows is the complete Rajasthan Royals vs Gujarat Titans timeline, match by match and record by record.

The Head-to-Head Ledger

Read the top-line numbers the way an analyst reads a balance sheet and two things stand out. The first is the headline lead: GT have won two of every three games played. The second is the spread of extremes. Both sides' highest totals came in 2025, both comfortably above 200, and both biggest winning margins came in the same month. This is a fixture where the ceiling has kept rising.

The 66.7% win rate flatters GT slightly if it is read as a measure of current form. Strip out the three 2022 results and the remaining six games split evenly, a point we return to below. Still, a lead is a lead, and in a short series of nine matches every single result moves the needle meaningfully.

Every Meeting, Match by Match

The full timeline below captures all nine encounters, from GT's debut-season opener against RR at DY Patil Stadium to the last-over finish in Ahmedabad in April 2026. Note the rising totals: the first five games produced only one first-innings score above 190, while every first innings since has reached 196 or more.

IPL 2022: Gujarat's Championship Season Takes Shape

Gujarat Titans' maiden IPL campaign produced three straight victories over Rajasthan Royals, and the third of them delivered the trophy. Few expansion franchises in any sport establish a psychological edge over an established rival that quickly.

The tone was set in the first meeting at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on April 14. GT batted first and posted 192/4, a total that demanded RR's top order fire in unison. Jos Buttler, then RR's opener and the competition's form batter, gave it a fight at the top, but the support never arrived. GT defended the target comfortably, holding RR to 155/9 and winning by 37 runs. With hindsight, the championship credentials were visible from the very first exchange of the season.

The sides met again in Qualifier 1 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on May 24, and the result was just as decisive, even if the scorecard looks closer. RR posted a respectable 188/6, a total that would win plenty of knockout games. GT were never seriously stretched in the chase. David Miller's 68* off 30 balls, which included three consecutive sixes off Prasidh Krishna, all but closed the contest as GT reached 189/3 with three balls to spare. The win booked GT a direct route to the final, while RR had to take the long road through Qualifier 2 to earn a rematch.

The 2022 Final: A Fairy Tale Crowned in Ahmedabad

If this rivalry has a defining night, it is May 29, 2022, at the Narendra Modi Stadium. GT were playing at home in front of more than 100,000 spectators, and the occasion carried the weight of history before a ball was bowled. RR captain Sanju Samson won the toss and chose to bat first. It proved to be a decision that backfired dramatically.

GT captain Hardik Pandya brought himself on with the ball and produced an all-round performance that will outlive most of the match's smaller details. His 3/17 in four overs tore through RR's batting order, including the prized wicket of Jos Buttler for 39 off 35. Without their talisman, RR never found the fluency their top order is capable of. They slid to 130/9, well short of a competitive total on a surface that had been considerably kinder to batting sides throughout the tournament.

Chasing 131 should have been routine, yet GT wobbled early and stood at 31/2 at the end of the powerplay. In a final, that is when nerves usually show. Instead, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya steadied the innings with a composed 63-run third-wicket partnership. Gill anchored with an unbeaten 45 off 43, while Pandya added a responsible 34 off 30 before Yuzvendra Chahal's beautifully turning delivery sent him back. David Miller then closed the game with a flurry of boundaries, and GT crossed the line in 18.1 overs, winning by 7 wickets with 11 balls to spare. Pandya was named Player of the Match.

With that, GT became the first franchise since RR's Shane Warne-led side of 2008 to win the IPL in their debut season, and the only other one ever to do so. The symmetry was lost on no one in the stadium that night. The newest champion had been crowned by beating the original underdog.

IPL 2023: Rajasthan Break Through, Then Get Flattened

After three defeats in three meetings in 2022, RR finally beat GT in 2023, and they did it in a manner that ranks among the most improbable comebacks of that season. At the Narendra Modi Stadium on April 16, GT posted 177/7. RR's chase then fell into crisis. At the halfway stage they were 66/4, and ESPNcricinfo's win-probability model put their chances at under 2%. By any reasonable reading, the game was over.

Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer disagreed. Together they engineered a turnaround built on calm accumulation followed by violent acceleration. Hetmyer's unbeaten 56 off 26 balls was the decisive blow, his counter-attacking strokeplay carrying RR to 179/7 with four balls to spare and three wickets in hand. Hetmyer took Player of the Match, and RR had at least partially avenged the final defeat, on the very ground where it happened.

The reverse fixture at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, on May 5 told an entirely different story. On home soil, RR were bundled out for 118, their lowest total in this fixture. Rashid Khan's 3/14 spearheaded the attack, and alongside Hardik Pandya he dismantled the Royals' lineup. GT knocked off the runs at 119/1 in just 13.5 overs, winning by 9 wickets with 37 balls to spare. Measured by balls remaining, it is still GT's most comprehensive victory in this rivalry.

IPL 2024: Jaipur Goes Down to the Wire

The single 2024 meeting, again at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, delivered one of the tightest finishes the fixture has seen. RR batted first and put up a formidable 196/3, setting GT a stiff target on a batting-friendly surface. Chasing nearly 10 an over in Jaipur requires both nerve and composure, and GT supplied both. Anchored by Shubman Gill's measured innings, they reached 199/7 off the final ball to win by 3 wickets.

It was the kind of game that captures what this rivalry has become: high scoring, alive to the last delivery and settled by the narrowest of margins. For RR, it was a painful reminder that posting near-200 was no longer a guarantee of anything against this opponent.

IPL 2025: Three Weeks That Rewrote the Record Book

The 2025 season produced both the largest team victory and the most extraordinary individual performance in the rivalry's history, and it did so within a span of three weeks.

Match 7: Ahmedabad, April 9, 2025

On their home ground, GT posted 217/6, the highest total yet recorded in the fixture. Sai Sudharsan anchored with a composed 82 off 53 balls, and M. Shahrukh Khan supplied late acceleration with 36 off 20. RR's chase was hampered by dry conditions and by sharp GT bowling, led by Prasidh Krishna's 3/24, which choked the Royals' key middle-order batters. RR were bowled out for 159, handing GT a 58-run win, the biggest margin in the rivalry's history. Sai Sudharsan was named Player of the Match for his contributions in both innings.

Match 8: Jaipur, April 28, 2025

Nineteen days later came the match nobody saw coming. GT posted 209/4, built on Shubman Gill's 84 and a measured 50* from Jos Buttler, now in GT colours. On most nights that is a winning total. It was not this time.

Opening alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, 14-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi walked out and launched Mohammed Siraj for a huge six off just the second legal delivery he faced. What followed belongs among the most extraordinary individual displays in the history of the competition. He raised his half-century off 17 balls. He reached three figures off just 35 deliveries, the second-fastest century in IPL history and the fastest ever by an Indian, behind only Chris Gayle's 30-ball hundred from 2013.

His final line read 101* off 38 balls, with 11 sixes, equalling the record for most by an Indian in a single IPL innings, and 7 fours. Remarkably, 94 of his 101 runs came in boundaries. At 14 years and 32 days, he became the youngest centurion in IPL history and the youngest centurion in men's T20 cricket anywhere in the world.

Prasidh Krishna eventually dislodged him with an accurate yorker, but by then RR needed only 44 runs from 49 balls. Jaiswal finished unbeaten on 70, Riyan Parag added a brisk 32*, and RR passed the target in 15.5 overs, completing the fastest successful chase of 200-plus in IPL history. The final score of RR 212/2, a win by 8 wickets, stands as Rajasthan's most dominant performance against GT.

IPL 2026: Bishnoi and Deshpande Hold Their Nerve

The most recent meeting, at the Narendra Modi Stadium on April 4, 2026, produced the rivalry's closest and most dramatic finish since the 2022 Final. RR captain Riyan Parag won the toss and chose to bat, a bold call at a venue known for big chases. Dhruv Jurel (75 off 42) and Yashasvi Jaiswal anchored a polished innings that climbed to 210/6.

GT were without Shubman Gill, sidelined by muscle spasms, and Rashid Khan stepped in as captain. The chase started promisingly. Sai Sudharsan played an elegant 73 off 44 balls, and Buttler added further momentum. Then Ravi Bishnoi produced the spell that turned the match on its head, taking 4/41 and dismantling GT's middle order to leave them at 161/7.

GT refused to fold. Kagiso Rabada and Rashid put together a defiant 43-run stand for the 8th wicket, a GT IPL record for that partnership, and dragged the equation down to 10 off the final over. Tushar Deshpande bowled the 20th under enormous pressure, conceding only 4 runs and taking two wickets. GT finished on 204/8, and RR won by 6 runs, the narrowest margin of victory in this rivalry. The match will be remembered for Bishnoi's decisive spell and Deshpande's nerve in the final over.

Notable Records: Individual Performances

The individual records tell a story of a rivalry whose biggest moments are spread across both camps. RR own the headline batting and bowling marks; GT own the volume statistics, which reflects their longer stretch of dominance.

Notable Records: Team Marks

The team table rewards a closer look. The two highest totals arrived within 19 days of each other in April 2025, and the second of them came in a chase. That is the clearest sign of how the fixture has evolved from the attritional, bowler-led contests of 2022 and 2023 into a batting shootout where 200 is a par score rather than a fortress.

Inside the 2022 Final Numbers

Where the Games Are Won: Venue Breakdown

Venue dynamics add a layer of strategic texture. The Narendra Modi Stadium, GT's fortress in their early years, is now dead level, with RR's two wins there arriving in 2023 and 2026. Jaipur still leans GT's way, which will sting in the Royals' dressing room given it is their home ground.

The Batters Who Defined the Rivalry

The Bowlers Who Decided It

What Makes This Rivalry Different

The connection between these franchises runs deeper than geography or scheduling. Rajasthan Royals won the very first IPL in 2008 as the great underdogs, led by Shane Warne and upsetting the established powers of Indian cricket against all odds. Gujarat Titans replicated that exact achievement in 2022, becoming the only other franchise ever to win the championship on debut. When GT sealed the title that night in Ahmedabad, they echoed history in the most specific way imaginable.

That is why the 2022 Final carries a weight no other game in this series can match. It was not merely a trophy won; it was a torch passed. Two debut champions, one final, and a moment of completion that connected the league's first season to its expansion era.

Since that night, however, the rivalry has shifted markedly. GT's 3–0 sweep in 2022 has compressed to a 6–3 overall lead as of 2026. RR have won three of the last six meetings, with victories in Jaipur and twice in Ahmedabad, a ground GT once appeared to own outright in this fixture. The 2025 and 2026 seasons, in particular, have produced Rajasthan's best cricket in the matchup.

The generational storylines add to the appeal. Hardik Pandya's captaincy and all-round brilliance defined GT's title-winning era. The baton then passed to Shubman Gill, who has carried GT's batting at the top of the order. On the RR side, the arrival of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, a 14-year-old taking on Rashid Khan, Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj and hitting centuries off them, is the most electric subplot the sport has offered in some time.

There is a commercial dimension here, too. A league that sells itself on narrative benefits enormously from fixtures with built-in storylines, and few matchups package history, a championship final and a teenage record-breaker as neatly as this one. For broadcasters and sponsors, that kind of recurring drama is the content equivalent of a dependable earnings stream.

Strategic Takeaways for Readers Tracking the Fixture

For analysts, fantasy players and anyone handicapping the next meeting, several patterns stand out from the nine-game sample.

1. Discount the 2022 sweep when judging current form. Since the start of 2023 the series stands at 3–3. The 6–3 headline overstates GT's present-day edge.

2. Treat 200 as par, not a winning score. Three of the last four games featured first-innings totals of 209 or more, and two of those were chased down or run very close. Teams batting first will need to push well beyond 200 to feel safe.

3. Home advantage is weak. RR have won twice in Ahmedabad and lost twice at home in Jaipur. Venue familiarity has not translated into reliable results for either side.

4. Wrist spin decides tight games. Rashid Khan's 3/14, Chahal's key wicket in the 2022 Final and Bishnoi's 4/41 in 2026 show that middle-overs spin has repeatedly swung this fixture.

5. Watch GT's availability. Gill's absence in April 2026 coincided with a narrow defeat. Any lingering fitness concern around GT's leading run-scorer is a material variable.

What Could Change the Picture

Small samples cut both ways. Nine matches is a thin basis for firm conclusions, and individual brilliance has decided several of these games outright. A single Sooryavanshi-style innings or a Bishnoi-style spell can overturn any trend line. Squad turnover is another risk to any forecast: Buttler has already switched sides, Hardik Pandya has left GT, and captaincy has passed between players on both teams. Fitness, especially Gill's, and the conditions on the day in Ahmedabad and Jaipur will shape the next chapter as much as any historical pattern.

The Bottom Line

The Rajasthan Royals vs Gujarat Titans timeline is the story of the IPL's two debut-season champions, original underdogs separated by 14 years but bound by the same improbable achievement. GT's 6–3 head-to-head lead rests on their 2022 dominance, which peaked with the Final in Ahmedabad. Rajasthan have since hit back hard: three wins in the last six meetings, Sooryavanshi's all-time record century and a last-over victory in 2026. With Shubman Gill's captaincy maturing at GT and RR's Sooryavanshi-Jaiswal opening pair already producing historic chases, every future meeting carries the weight of champion against champion. The next chapter is already being written.