Vaibhav Sooryavanshi delivered another statement-making performance in a knockout game where Rajasthan Royals carried the weight of expectation. In the Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the teenager turned pressure into power, producing a spellbinding innings that not only changed the tone of the match, but also set new benchmarks for how fearlessly he plays the game at the crease.
Sooryavanshi smashed 12 sixes in his whirlwind knock, rewriting a record that had stood for more than a decade. His six-hitting in this IPL season has now reached 65, moving beyond the 59 maximums that Chris Gayle struck back in 2012. Even so, the moment still carried a hint of “what if” — he came agonisingly close to the fastest century in IPL history, only to fall for 97 from 29 balls. Gayle’s record-breaking hundred off 30 deliveries therefore remains the benchmark for pace in the format.
How he dismantled a top-tier bowling unit
What made the knock even more eye-catching was the quality of the bowling attack he took apart. Sooryavanshi cleared the boundary with ease against a pace group that included Pat Cummins, along with Eshan Malinga, Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain. In the biggest spotlight of the tournament, one of the more formidable bowling line-ups looked out of sorts as his timing and intent repeatedly forced errors.
- Sooryavanshi struck 12 sixes during his innings in the Eliminator versus Sunrisers Hyderabad.
- His 65 sixes in the season surpassed Chris Gayle’s 59 maximums from the 2012 campaign.
- He finished on 97, falling for the score off 29 balls, with Gayle’s 30-ball century still the fastest in IPL history.
- He repeatedly overcame a strong pace set-up that featured Pat Cummins, Eshan Malinga, Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain.
Former Australia batter Tom Moody struggled to find the right words when assessing the impact Sooryavanshi is having on T20 cricket after the Eliminator display. Moody suggested what the 15-year-old is producing goes far beyond the usual range of standout performances, describing it as dominance that feels rare even when compared across formats.
Moody said the only way to truly understand the scale of the feat was to watch it with your own eyes, adding that the level of control and authority he is seeing doesn’t resemble what has been witnessed in this format during his lifetime. He also expanded on the gap in class, drawing a striking comparison to the legendary Sir Donald Bradman — pointing out that the separation Sooryavanshi has created between himself and the rest of the field in T20 cricket mirrors the kind of statistical distance Bradman maintained in Test cricket.
Moody’s comparison was rooted in the idea that Bradman’s average hovered near 100, while the next best was separated by a significant margin — and he felt Sooryavanshi’s T20 dominance at just 15 years old has a similar feel, at least in terms of the distance it appears to create.
Orange Cap update
Sooryavanshi has also taken firm control of the Orange Cap race. After a campaign that has reshaped expectations around aggressive batting in T20 cricket, he sits at the top of the standings with 680 runs from 15 matches. His average stands at 45.33, while his strike rate is an eye-catching 242.85, underlining how consistently he is turning opportunities into rapid scoring.
