IPL 2026: Scoreboard pressure and poor fielding cost us against RCB, says Glenn Phillips

Glenn Phillips (Pic: AFP)

Gujarat Titans batsman Glenn Phillips admitted that relentless scoreboard pressure, coupled with a poor fielding display, proved costly during the team's 92-run defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the first qualifier of IPL 2026.

Chasing a massive 254 runs, GT's batting line-up crumbled under pressure and was bowled out for just 162 runs. For RCB, Rajat Patidar starred with the bat, smashing an unbeaten 93 runs to power RCB to a massive first-innings total.

Phillips said the chase became increasingly difficult after RCB struck early wickets during the powerplay.

"250 any day is a tough ask to chase without everything going your way. There's obviously a huge amount of scoreboard pressure when you're trying to chase 250, and very few teams have done it. We went out there and gave it everything. Unfortunately, when you're trying to chase 250, everything has to go right, and obviously it didn't," he added.

The Kiwi international felt that the pitch remained favourable for batting despite the one-sided nature of the contest.

"It obviously produced plenty of runs for Rajat and a couple of the other boys in the RCB side. But as Rahul (Tewatiya) showed as well, it was still good enough to bat on in the second innings," he said.

'Fielding let us down, says Phillips

Phillips highlighted Gujarat Titans' lapses in the field - particularly the dropped catch that gave Patidar a reprieve when he was batting on 20 - as a major turning point in the match.

"In playoff games, fielding becomes really crucial. You can bowl well and bat well, but if you field badly, you're still going to lose. Rajat made us pay big time today. You can't win games if you can't take catches." Phillips said.

However, he suggested the fielding issues were more related to mindset than technical shortcomings.

"It's probably more of an attitudinal shift than anything else from a fielding perspective, making sure that we want the ball and want to do something special," he said.

Despite defeat, Gujarat Titans will still have another opportunity to qualify for the IPL 2026 final if they win Qualifier 2 on Friday.

(With PTI inputs)