Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, just 15, clattered a scarcely believable 97 from 29 balls as Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 47 runs in the IPL Eliminator in New Chandigarh. The total – 243 for 8 – proved well beyond Pat Cummins’ side, who folded for 196. The win leaves Royals one match away from the final; Qualifier 2, against Gujarat Titans, is also in New Chandigarh, where Rajasthan now own a neat four-from-four record this season.
The numbers come first because they matter. Thirty-one of Sooryavanshi’s runs arrived off Cummins, the Australia and SRH captain, who opened the bowling, tried a couple of yorkers, and was swatted for 4-6-6-6 in his second over once the length strayed.
“Yeah, he played pretty well. [You] don’t feel like you have too many options,” Cummins admitted afterwards. “Obviously, it’s a really good pitch, but the margins are so small you know. You miss your yorker by a little bit [and] he doesn’t tend to miss them. So yeah fair play.”
If Cummins sounded almost philosophical, Jofra Archer – three wickets with the new ball and man who bowls at the lad in the nets – simply looked delighted. “It was very exciting. The more runs he scores, the more runs we have to defend, so he can go on and get 150. It’s good for the boys when he gets a lot of runs,” Archer laughed.
Royal’s stand-in captain Riyan Parag keeps things equally simple with the youngster. “That’s the thing we don’t have any conversations,” Parag said at the presentation. “Yeah just leave him alone, let him go and have fun. He likes batting like I’ve said before so we get him a lot of batting practice at the nets and stuff like that and then he goes out and does his thing.”
That “thing” – flat-batted drives, pick-up pulls, even a delicate ramp over fine leg – took Royals from a middling 28 for 2 to outright control. The innings was also a reminder that modern T20 batting is, at times, a micro-science: Cummins’ first yorker landed, dot; the next was fractionally fuller, squeezed for one; the third missed the mark by an inch, flew for six, and the spell was effectively done.
Sunrisers briefly threatened through Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen, but Archer nipped out both in the powerplay and spin throttled the chase. The surface stayed true – good carry, little turn – yet 244 always felt a bridge too far.
So, Royals roll on. No fireworks in the dressing room, we’re told, just a handshake for a teenager playing the game as if it’s under-15s on a Sunday morning. One more win and he will be in an IPL final before he finishes Year 11.
