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Sooryavanshi's dazzling knock keeps Royals' dream alive

cricket27 May 2026 18:20| © MWP
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A blistering 97 off 29 balls from 15-year-old megastar Vaibhav Sooryavanshi enabled the Rajasthan Royals to crush Sunrisers Hyderabad by 47 runs in their Tata IPL Eliminator at New Chandigarh on Wednesday night.

The Royals will now play the Gujurat Titans in Friday’s second qualifier at this venue with the winner of that match playing the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Sunday’s final in Ahmedabad.

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Royals, having been put in to bat by Sunrisers, raced to 80 without loss in the power play and 125 in eight overs before Sooryavanshi was out, edging Praful Hinge to third man.

The youngster had once again amazed the crowd, not to mention the pundits, as he belted 12 sixes and five fours in his 29-ball innings.

Sooryavanshi struck his runs all around the wicket with Australia’s captain, Pat Cummins, coming in for particularly harsh treatment, going for 64 in his four overs.

He had already beaten Chris Gayle’s record of 59 sixes in an IPL season and the newly dubbed “Universal Baby Boss” stood poised to beat Gayle’s record of a century in 30 balls before he perished in the deep.

Nevertheless the young power-hitter had put his team in command.

Despite wickets falling, Dhruv Jurel maintained the momentum of the innings with a superb 50 in 21 balls, including five fours and three sixes.

The last quarter of the innings, however, saw a revival of Sunrisers’ hopes as they restricted Royals to 36-5 in the last five overs.

Any thoughts that the Sunrisers, with their powerful batting line-up, would threaten their target of 244, were quickly jolted when Jofra Archer, bowling at high speeds of beyond 150kph, had Abhishek Sharma caught hooking in his opening over for a duck.

Ishan Kishan briefly counter-attacked, striking 33 in just 11 balls, but Archer bowled Travis Head with a searing delivery and then had Kishan caught at cover.

And with Smaran Ravichandran dismissed by Archer’s opening partner, Nandre Burger, the Sunrisers had lost four key wickets in the power play.

Arguably the key scalp, however, fell to young legspinner Yash Raj Punja, who had the ever-dangerous Heinrich Klaasen trapped leg before, on review, for 18, after he missed a reverse sweep when poised to launch.

Nitish Kumar Reddy (38 in 20 balls), Salil Arora (35 off 21) and Shivang Kumar (27) bravely tried to respond but it was entirely fitting that Sooryavanshi took the final catch to see Sunrisers dismissed for 196 in 19.2 overs.

Archer was expensive but took important wickets in his 3-58 while also taking three catches, while Burger (2-26 in three overs), Sushant Mishra (2-21) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-21) provided good support.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (capt), Donovan Ferreira, Dasun Shanaka, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma, Yash Raj Punja

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wk), Heinrich Klaasen, R Smaran, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins (capt), Shivang Kumar, Eshan Malinga, Sakib Hussain, Praful Hinge

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