Rajasthan Royals batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi kept drawing gasps with his aggressive strokeplay, but the effort wasn’t enough to stop Gujarat Titans in Jaipur on Saturday. The left-handed batter struck 36 off 16 balls, including three boundaries of each kind—fours and sixes—while chasing a big target.
Sooryavanshi’s spellbinding phase featured a pair of consecutive hits against Kagiso Rabada. The first six cleared the fine-leg region, and the second landed beyond the mid-wicket boundary, briefly igniting RR’s chase.
Quick facts
- Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made 36 off 16 balls for Rajasthan Royals.
- He hit three fours and three sixes versus Gujarat Titans.
- Sooryavanshi also struck back-to-back sixes off Kagiso Rabada (first over fine leg, then beyond mid-wicket).
- Rabada finished with 3 for 33 in three overs and claimed the Purple Cap.
- Gujarat Titans scored 229 for 4 in 20 overs.
- Rajasthan Royals were dismissed for 152 in 16.3 overs.
- Gujarat won by 77 runs and recorded a fourth straight victory, moving to second place in the IPL 2026 table.
After the game, Rabada played down the duel with the RR opener. He said that what has worked for him over more than a decade still forms the basis of his approach, pointing to the groundwork and match-up analysis that typically happen behind the scenes.
“What’s worked for 11 years will continue to work, right? It’s about hedging your bets and hoping it comes off,” Rabada said. “There’s a whole lot of hard work done behind the scenes, plus analysis to look at a batter’s weaknesses. That nuance is there, but otherwise it’s the same old process.”
Purple Cap push and workload talk
On the field, the South African pacer returned to form with figures of 3/33 from three overs. With that haul, he took his tally to the Purple Cap lead, having now collected 18 wickets across 11 matches in the ongoing season.
Rabada also addressed the demands of managing body and mind across a long campaign. He said fatigue typically begins to build at this stage, so the focus is on staying as fresh as possible—especially as the tournament moves into its back end.
“Body feels good, but this is where the fatigue starts to set in. The mental fatigue too,” he explained. “So it’s about staying on top of that—making sure you’re as fresh as possible. That’s where the professional side of the game is needed, a lot more, especially in the back end. My body feels good, and hopefully I can continue what I’ve been doing.”
Gujarat Titans, meanwhile, did the damage with the bat before defending it comfortably. They outplayed Rajasthan Royals by 77 runs in their IPL 2026 meeting at the Jaipur venue on Saturday.
Shubman Gill set the tone with a standout 84 off 44 balls, helping GT reach 229 for 4 in their 20 overs. In reply, RR—captained by stand-in skipper Yashasvi Jaiswal—could only manage 152 all out in 16.3 overs.
Rashid Khan spearheaded the bowling attack for Gujarat with four wickets. Jason Holder supported with three scalps, while Rabada contributed two and Mohammed Siraj chipped in with one.
Sooryavanshi’s impact continued to turn heads even as the chase unraveled. He became the fastest player to reach 100 T20 sixes, but his dismissal was followed by a collapse that left Rajasthan unable to recover.
The result ensured Gujarat Titans extended their momentum, with this victory marking their fourth win in succession. It also moved them to second place on the IPL 2026 points table.
