Royal Challengers Bengaluru cruised to their second consecutive IPL final, their fifth in all, with a 92-run demolition of Gujarat Titans in Dharamsala. After Rajat Patidar's unbeaten 93 set up RCB's mammoth total of 254, the pacers wreaked havoc and reduced GT to rubble in the Powerplay, turning this Qualifier 1 clash into a one-sided encounter, notwithstanding Rahul Tewatia's resistance with the bat. Rajat Patidar with arguably the knock of his career yet. On 20 off 12, he got a reprieve as Kagiso Rabada dropped a catch. Thereafter, there was no looking back as the RCB skipper plundered sixes - nine in all - at will, with his unbeaten 33-ball 93 powering the defending champions to a whopping 254. Having lost half their side in the Powerplay, GT lost even the slim chance they stood. When RCB were asked to bat first, Venkatesh Iyer made a statement of intent by punching Mohammed Siraj through the covers with the very first ball. He scored two more boundaries, but Kagiso Rabada caused Virat Kohli trouble in the second over by offering more bounce from his end. Venkatesh ramped Rabada for a six but he fell as he got a top-edge off a short ball, Shubman Gill taking a good catch at mid-off. Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal, on the other hand, both got going with lofts over mid-off for RCB, which never wavered in their intent. While Kohli struggled to get his timing right - underlined by a control percentage of 60 during his stay - Padikkal accessed both sides of the ground for boundaries, with the lightning-quick outfield coming to the batters' aid. RCB raced to 50 in the first four overs, forcing Gill to use a bowler not named Siraj or Rabada in the Powerplay for the first time in eight games. An overthrow which traveled to the fence summed up GT's frustrations in the Powerplay and even as Rabada cut Kohli in half again in the sixth over, the latter hooked one over the keeper's head for six as RCB piled up the runs early on. The eighth over, in which Rashid Khan made his debut, was the first without a boundary up until that point. After that, Kohli's dismissal in Bengaluru earlier in the season was brought back to mind by Jason Holder as the latter scored one across the line and continued playing off the inside edge. Padikkal slipped behind after two deliveries and brought a review with him as GT began to pull back. Even though Krunal Pandya's ramp off Prasidh Krishna stood out and the odd boundary kept coming, RCB only scored 23 runs in the four overs that followed the Powerplay. Neither Patidar nor Krunal Pandya had the timing right. The turning point came in the 14th over as Rabada shelled a chance at deep mid-wicket, shortly after Patidar got away with a leading edge that landed in the deep third region. Kulwant Khejroliya was a surprising inclusion for his first game of the season and while he started with a three-run over, the wheels came off in the 15th. A horror over featured a beamer that was hit for four, a wide, a misfield from the free hits, and a front-foot no ball. Patidar finished the over with fours on either side of a six, swinging momentum strongly in RCB's favor before Rashid, who was probably shielded from Patidar, hit three sixes right away. GT looked lost for answers even as Krunal fell, with Patidar whipping up a 21-ball fifty with a six. The shot of the innings saw him launch a back of a length delivery off Rabada nonchalantly over cover as RCB rocketed past 200 in the 16th over. Patidar gave the crowd catching practice with three more sixes in the final two overs, though Prasidh nailed his yorkers and cleaned up Tim David. Jitesh Sharma chipped in with a six and a four himself as Siraj traveled for 21 in the 19th over and Prasidh, 20 in the last. 114 runs and 10 sixes off the last six overs underlined the carnage, with RCB recording the highest playoff score in the league's history. Similar to what Venkatesh did for RCB, Sai Sudharsan hit the first two balls of the chase to the fence. But misfortune hit the Orange Cap holder in the third over as he creamed a cut to the fence, only for his bat to slip out of his hands on his follow-through before deflecting onto the stumps off the pitch. Nothing could have poetically summed up the nightmare that the Titans were to endure more than this. Shubman Gill handed Bhuvneshwar Kumar his 25th wicket of the season as he swung across the line for the ball to crash into his stumps. Jos Buttler was then the lone man standing between RCB and a second successive final and he began in imperious fashion, smashing a four and a six off Bhuvneshwar before following it up with more off Josh Hazlewood. The Aussie cleverly disguised a knuckle ball to bowl Buttler, sealing the game for all practical purposes. In the Powerplay, GT would lose two more runs when Rasikh Salam Dar bowled Nishant Sindhu and Holder hit one to mid-on right after Kohli missed a run out at the striker's end. The fact that Rahul Tewatia, who had little to do with the bat throughout the season, left the Powerplay to face the music told a story. GT went through the motions following the Powerplay, while Tewatia had a difficult start to his knock. Washington Sundar upper-cut a Jacob Duffy delivery to deep third, while the Titans mustered 70 in the first 10 overs - six fewer than what RCB managed in the Powerplay alone. Such was RCB's dominance that they did not even activate their Impact Sub until the start of the 12th over. Rabada picked up a couple of boundaries before heaving a Krunal bouncer to Kohli at long on. Romario Shepherd, RCB's impact sub, endured another tough outing as Tewatia picked up pace with an array of boundaries, typically accessing his fancied square leg region. He scooped Hazlewood before swiping one for a six, before using the pace on the ball deftly for a boundary. A similar stroke raised his fifty, with a short-arm jab behind square following soon after. It looked as though GT would bat out their 20 overs but fittingly, it was Patidar who plucked an excellent catch running back at cover to end Tewatia's resistance at 68. The game did go into the final over before Siraj swung the ball a long way up as Tim David charged in from long off and completed a stunning sliding catch to seal RCB's ticket to the final. RCB fly to Ahmedabad and await their opponent for Sunday's title clash. GT will make a pitstop at Mullanpur for Qualifier 2 on Friday (May 29), where they will face the winner of the SRH-RR Eliminator.