Despite losing his wicket early in Rajasthan Royals’ final league game on Sunday, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi still ended up creating history in T20 cricket. He managed only four runs off six balls, but it took his season tally to 583 runs, becoming the teenager with the most runs in a single T20 tournament or series. He overtook Devdutt Padikkal, who earlier held the record after getting 580 runs for Karnataka during the 2019-20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
This season, Sooryavanshi has been in dominant form, registering 583 runs in 14 matches at an average of 41.64 and a stunning strike rate of 232.27. He has also managed a ton and three half-centuries this season.
Although Sooryavanshi failed with the bat against MI, RR still managed to win the match by a big margin and also qualified for the playoffs. RR needed a win in their final league game to take the final playoff berth.
Defending a target of 206 runs, RR restricted MI to 175/9 in 20 overs, with Jofra Archer taking a three-wicket haul. Meanwhile, Brijesh Sharma and Nandre Burger took two wickets each. Suryakumar Yadav got a half-century for MI, registering 60 off 42 balls.
Initially, Archer’s 15-ball 32 was key as RR posted 205/8 in 20 overs. The RR batters performed as a collective after their openers departed early. Dhruv Jurel (38), Dasun Shanaka (29) and Ravindra Jadeja (19*) also got important knocks. For MI, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar took two-wicket hauls.
The first innings also saw RR promote Archer higher up the order at no. 7 and Jadeja was sent at no. 9. Explaining the decision, RR head coach Kumar Sangakkara said, “It’s great when it works and pretty ugly when it doesn’t. We know what Jofra can do with the bat. Wanted him to go out there and take a bit of risk. And then let Ferreira and Dubey handle the later overs when the bowlers were tired in the sun. Unfortunately Donovan did get out but Jofra kicked on and then Jaddu coming in at the end with a bung elbow got us over the line. From where we were, looking at only 180, 206 was a fantastic effort.”
“Archer is very invested in the team, helping everyone. Has been our spearhead right from the start. Today, to see the way he bowled, but before that with the bat and really take us to the qualification, that was an exceptional effort from Jofra. Very proud of him,” he added.
