Even at just 15, by the towering standards he has already set for himself, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi endured the most un-Sooryavanshi start on Tuesday at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. At one stage in the chase, he was crawling on 11 off 12 balls. But he soon turned that into a 23-ball fifty — a measured knock by his standards, in fact the slowest fifty of his IPL career so far. What followed was absolute mayhem at a venue where he had already scored both his previous IPL hundreds. A third century looked inevitable, only for him to fall agonisingly short on 93.
As surprising as it may sound, when Rajasthan Royals reached the 50-run mark in just 26 balls while chasing 221 at home, it was Yashasvi Jaiswal who had blasted 38 of those runs off just 18 balls, taking Mohsin Khan and Akash Singh apart. Sooryavanshi, who waited six balls to find his first boundary, was scoring at less than a run-a-ball at that stage, managing just five runs from his first eight deliveries.
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It was only on the penultimate ball of the fifth over that he finally broke free, deciding enough was enough, as he leaned back and smashed a fuller delivery outside off for a six over deep extra-cover.
Prince Yadav, fresh off his India call-up earlier in the day, then faced Sooryavanshi’s wrath as the opener hammered a six and two fours in the final over of the powerplay to restore normalcy — 25 off 16 balls. Those boundaries also helped him complete 500 runs this season, making him the youngest batter ever to achieve the feat, surpassing Rishabh Pant’s record from 2018.
Sooryavanshi did not face another delivery for the next two overs, during which Jaiswal departed just short of his fifty. And although Lucknow Super Giants sensed an opening, a storm was about to arrive.
Off the next 25 balls he faced, the prodigy smashed four boundaries and eight sixes — 64 runs in total — as he raced from his fifty towards another century. The brutality had even Sunil Gavaskar raving in the commentary box. It included a 26-run over against Akash Singh and a 29-run over against Mayank Yadav.
Eventually, the left-handed batter, who was picked in the India A squad for the upcoming tri-series after the IPL season, was undone by a slower bouncer from Mohsin Khan as his stunning knock ended on 93 off just 38 balls.
But despite the dismissal and the heartbreak of missing out on another hundred, the Jaipur crowd rose to their feet as he walked back to the pavilion. So did his RR teammates. Even LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka and head coach Justin Langer, putting rivalry aside, applauded the teenager’s breathtaking innings.
