The seemingly unlikely qualifying occurred when RCB lost seven of their first eight games before recovering hard to win the last six. CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad won the toss and instructed the host team to bat first at Bengaluru's MA Chinaaswamy Stadium. The veteran combination of Virat Kohli and Faf Du Plessis opened the batting for RCB, putting on an opening partnership of 78 runs to give Bengaluru a strong start. Later, quickfire strikes from Rajat Patidar (41 off 23 balls) and Cameron Green (38 off 17 balls), together with cameos from Dinesh Karthik and Glenn Maxwell, helped RCB score 218 runs in 20 overs.
However, in order to qualify for the play-offs, RCB needed to win by 17 runs or more and overtake CSK on net run rate. This meant that both sides were staring at a 201-run objective rather than 218. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra opened the innings for CSK, but Gaikwad was removed by Glenn Maxwell in the opening over of the game. Soon after, Daryl Mitchell left on four, leading CSK to 19/2 in 2.2 overs.
Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra stabilized the CSK innings for a time, giving the yellow team some much-needed optimism. Rahane, on the other hand, was removed for 33 off 22 balls in the match's tenth over while attempting an aggressive shot off Lockie Ferguson. CSK continued to lose wickets at regular intervals, reaching 129 for six at the 15-over mark. At this time, CSK had MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja at the crease and required 72 runs from the remaining 5 overs to advance to the play-off stage. The duo went on the offensive against the RCB bowlers and completed an almost improbable run chase, needing only 17 runs from the match's last over.
MS Dhoni started the last over with a bang, slamming the opening ball over the boundary line for a six, but Yash Dayal responded forcefully, taking the CSK veteran's wicket in the next delivery. In the end, the match appeared to be evenly situated as a settled Jadeja (42 off 22 balls) required 10 runs off the last two deliveries, but the left-hander failed to read the two slower balls from Yash Dayal, allowing RCB to win and comfortably advance to the play-offs.
