The teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashed a staggering 12 sixes to lead Rajasthan Royals to a 47-run drubbing of Sunrisers Hyderabad in Wednesday’s Indian Premier League eliminator.
The 15-year-old Sooryavanshi, who won the regular season’s orange cap for the most runs scored (680), destroyed Hyderabad’s famed bowling with an incredible 29-ball 97, around which Rajasthan constructed an imposing 243-8 in Chandigarh.
Jofra Archer then produced a furious opening burst which fetched him three wickets in three overs as Hyderabad were bowled out for 196, with Rajasthan progressing to an IPL playoff showdown against Gujarat Titans.
The exciting Sooryavanshi unleashed another stunning exhibition of stroke-making as he breezed past Chris Gayle’s 12-year-old record for the most sixes (59) in a single edition of the IPL. With 65 sixes so far, the left-handed opener is certainly the dangerman against Gujarat.
The winner of that qualifier on Friday will head to Ahmedabad to take on the IPL title holders, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, in Sunday’s final. Bengaluru beat Jos Buttler’s Gujarat side by 92 runs on Tuesday in Dharamshala.
“I think a little, not too much,” Sooryavanshi said afterwards. “Try and keep things simple. I try to play with good intent and dominate the bowlers. I want to pressurise the bowler. My focus [today] was on contributing for the team – my focus now is how to win the trophy.”
Sooryavanshi warmed up with a straight six off Pat Cummins in the first over, then set about the Australian bowler in his next with three sixes and a four. Three more sixes in the following over, off Sakib Hussain, took him to his half-century in just 16 deliveries.
He seemed on course for the fastest IPL hundred – Gayle holds that record, off 30 deliveries – when he pummelled Praful Hinge for three sixes and two fours. Hinge had the last laugh, having Sooryavanshi caught at third man for 97, to the utter disappointment of a full house.
With Yashasvi Jaiswal (29) as a patient, admiring partner, Sooryavanshi dominated a combined opening salvo of 125, off just 49 deliveries. Dhruv Jurel kept up the charge with a 20-ball 50, but Hyderabad fought back in the final five overs which yielded just 36 to give their explosive batting line-up a slim chance.
Archer put paid to those aspirations as he blasted out the prolific Abhishek Sharma for a duck with a rapid bouncer off his second ball. Although Ishan Kishan (33) threatened briefly, the English pace man had his number too before cleaning up Travis Head (17) to leave the chase in tatters.
When the leg-spinner Yash Raj Punja trapped Heinrich Klaasen lbw for 18 off an ill-advised reverse sweep, the writing was on the wall. Nitish Kumar Reddy (38) and Salil Arora (35) delayed the inevitable, but Sooryavanshi and Rajasthan were not to be denied.
The teenager’s latest exploits earned high praise from India legend Sunil Gavaskar, who was commentating on the game. “What an innings. What a player,” Gavaskar said. “That is an innings to remember, an innings to savour.”
The former England captain, Michael Vaughan, led calls for Sooryavanshi to be called up for India’s white-ball tour of England this summer. “He is the best T20 opener in the world,” Vaughan wrote on X. “India have to pick him.”