Sooryavanshi 97 off 29 sends RR past SRH and breaks Chris Gayle's IPL sixes record
Pat Cummins had spent the week building Plan B and Plan C. Twenty-nine balls into Wednesday's Eliminator at Mullanpur, the plans were dust and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was on 97. Rajasthan Royals posted 243 for eight. Sunrisers Hyderabad were bowled out for 196 in 19.2 overs. RR won by 47 runs, kept their season alive, and walked into Friday's Qualifier 2 against Gujarat Titans.
Sooryavanshi hit five fours and 12 sixes at a strike rate of 334.48. The fifty came in 16 balls, the joint-fastest in an IPL knockout. The 12 sixes in one innings were the joint-most by any Indian batter in an IPL knock. Three runs short of a second IPL century, he holed out at long-on. The 15-year-old walked off to a standing ovation from a stand that had been on its feet for most of his stay.
The Gayle record gone, by a clear margin
The 12 sixes took Sooryavanshi's season tally to 65. Chris Gayle's record of 59 in a single IPL season, set in 2012 for Royal Challengers Bangalore, had stood for 14 years. It has gone with two playoff games left in Sooryavanshi's season. His season strike rate now sits at 242.85, from 680 runs in 15 innings. He is the first batter in any T20 tournament to clear 600 runs while striking at 200 or above.
The Cummins file from earlier in the week was about lines and lengths and the choice between Plan B and Plan C. The first six overs of Wednesday's chase made the file irrelevant. Sooryavanshi got under everything that came near a length, and SRH never got back to a single review of their plans inside the powerplay.
Jofra Archer takes the defence home
Defending 244 is a different question to scoring it. Jofra Archer returned three for 58 to give Rajasthan the start they needed, and the SRH chase never settled. Heinrich Klaasen had carried Hyderabad to the playoffs with 606 league-phase runs; on Wednesday he was unable to lift the chase. SRH lost wickets through the middle overs and folded in the 20th, four short of getting all 20 overs in. Their season ends here.
For Rajasthan it is the first time since 2022 that they have played a Qualifier 2. Their last IPL title was the inaugural one in 2008. Friday at Mullanpur will be a third match in five days for Rajasthan, against a Gujarat Titans team that lost Qualifier 1 to RCB by 92 runs and now needs to find an answer to the same set of questions every other side faced this week. Specifically: what do you bowl to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
Cricket Updates
