Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made a point of “settling the score” with Praful Hinge in the reverse meeting, after the SRH quick had dismissed him for a duck in Hyderabad. But on this occasion in Jaipur, there was no space for second thoughts. The 15-year-old stepped in with intent and immediately took on Hinge, launching four consecutive sixes in his opening over to announce himself loudly. Sooryavanshi has quickly become one of IPL’s most talked-about young talents, and the way he’s playing—bold, fearless, and free-flowing—has been turning heads across the tournament. SRH may have managed to survive the earlier encounter, yet in Jaipur they couldn’t afford the same luxury.
The start wasn’t perfect for him, though. He was beaten by the very first ball he faced, but that early wobble didn’t last long. Sooryavanshi then flipped the momentum with a third-delivery heaved over deep square leg, before following it up with another maximum over long leg. He raised the bar further with back-to-back sixes, clearing long-on and then long-off. Ending the opening over with four sixes in a row completely changed the complexion of the contest, giving Rajasthan Royals the upper hand from the outset and pushing the opposition onto the back foot almost immediately.
Importantly, his aggression didn’t fade even when the bowling came from experienced heads. Pat Cummins, back in action after injury, received a reminder of Sooryavanshi’s attacking mindset right away—there was a six off the first ball Cummins faced. The teenager’s approach has not been deterred by big names this season either, with Jasprit Bumrah, Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar all finding themselves under pressure against his relentless brand of power-hitting.
He kept accelerating throughout the innings and raced to a half-century in just 15 balls. That mark wasn’t a one-off; earlier this season he had reached the same milestone in the same number of deliveries twice before, doing it against RCB and CSK. Against SRH as well, he continued to sparkle, maintaining constant pressure on the bowling unit with his positive strokeplay and showing no signs of easing off at any stage.
Pat Cummins returns to lead SRH
Earlier in the match, Pat Cummins—captaining Sunrisers Hyderabad—won the toss and chose to field against Rajasthan Royals in their IPL clash on Saturday. The outing was Cummins’ first appearance of the season and also marked his return to competitive cricket after a prolonged spell away from the game. His last match had come in December, during the third Ashes Test against England at The Ashes. The Australian pacer had been forced to miss time due to a back injury, which in turn delayed the start of his IPL campaign. SRH also made two changes to their playing XI: Cummins came in for Dilshan Madushanka, while Praful Hinge replaced Harsh Dubey.
