Rajasthan Royals still control their own play-off destiny after a breezy, occasionally brutal, chase of 221 against Lucknow Super Giants on Monday night. Young opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi set it up with 93 from 38 deliveries, and by the time he holed out the Royals needed a comfortable 41 from the final six overs. They got there with seven balls left.
Those numbers are striking enough; the reaction from an opposition coach with 105 Test caps is telling too. Justin Langer, now guiding Lucknow, struggled to hide his admiration.
“In all my time I’ve seen some amazing players in 35 years of cricket,” Langer said. “To see a young man bat like that, not just tonight but throughout the series, is breathtaking.”
Langer’s point of reference was the calibre of bowling Sooryavanshi has been dismantling. “Do you know how I judge it? I think the last game, Mitchell Starc, who’s one of the all-time great white-ball bowlers, he’s bowling and he’s almost… you look at the expression on his face. And [Anrich] Nortje, who’s a world-class international bowler. And Sooryavanshi is hitting him and the expression on their face is such that: ‘What is happening here?’”
The Australian was just warming up. “So whilst as an ex-batter, knowing how hard batting is, I think, ‘What is going on here?’ The bowlers are thinking, ‘What on earth is going on here?’
“It’s quite incredible actually to be able to play that way, and now have the orange cap. You know, sometimes when players play like that, there’s high risk to it, and yet he’s doing it in every form of the game and scoring a lot of runs, and ultimately that’s what the game is about.
“And the scary thing is, the best way to learn how to make runs is to make runs, not by hitting some big sixes, and he makes runs over and over and over again. So the scary thing going forward, if the expressions on the face of Mitch Starc and Nortje and every bowler tell a story now, what about when he learns how to bat?
“My gosh, he’s so young. He’s a brilliant, brilliant player and it’s a real privilege to watch him bat actually.”
That mention of youth – Sooryavanshi is 22 – shapes the wider conversation. Langer was reminded of the Bradman question that surfaces every generation. “You know, people say to me, would Bradman have made so many runs in the days where, you know, they could wear helmets or blah blah blah, and I’d say, well, he would adapt,” the coach said. “And Sooryavanshi’s that good. Wherever he plays, he’s going to adapt his game because where are they going to bowl to him? I don’t see where are they going to bowl to him. So he’ll adapt, he’ll keep getting better and better, which is scary for world cricket.”
Lucknow’s attack had no obvious answer on the night. Mohsin Khan did begin with a probing first spell – a wicket-maiden in the reverse fixture sat fresh in his mind – and he restricted Sooryavanshi to 5 from his first 10 balls. But the opener absorbed that quiet patch and exploded, taking 88 from the next 28 he faced. The wagon wheel eventually revealed boundaries – conventional and improvised – in every sector bar fine leg.
Royals captain Riyan Parag was watching from the dug-out during that early crawl.
“I think this is his best innings,” Parag said. “I was in the dugout thinking the same thing when he was 5 off 10. From there he just flipped a switch.”
Parag’s praise felt measured, almost understated, much like the rest of the Royals’ night. Shimron Hetmyer finished the job with an unbeaten 34, while Rovman Powell’s 21 off 10 ensured the rate never climbed above ten an over during the final stretch.
The match leaves the table delicately poised. Royals need one more win from their last two fixtures to guarantee a top-four berth. Lucknow, stuck on 12 points, may have to win out and hope net run rate breaks their way.
From a broader perspective, Sooryavanshi’s form threatens to reshape blueprints across the tournament. He now owns both the orange cap and the highest strike-rate among batters with 300-plus runs. He is forcing attacks to revisit plans – fuller lengths disappear over cover, short balls end up in the second tier behind square, even yorker attempts are being ramped.
Analytically, his trigger movement is minimal – just a small press forward – which buys him that extra fraction of time. He then relies on extraordinary wrist strength, not dissimilar to a young Rohit Sharma, to whip length balls anywhere from midwicket to backward point. The technique is sound enough to survive on slower surfaces, evidenced by a run-a-ball half-century in Chennai last week, yet flexible enough for the dew-soaked skids of Lucknow.
None of that guarantees future success – opponents will pore over footage, and a lean patch will arrive at some stage – but for the moment neutral observers can probably allow themselves a little indulgence. Langer summed it up better than most: it really is “quite incredible” to watch.
