One side’s journey toward the IPL 2026 final will come to an end tonight, with Sunrisers Hyderabad set to face the Rajasthan Royals in the Eliminator at New Chandigarh. Led by Pat Cummins, SRH head into the knockout clash with a clear edge from the league stage, having already beaten RR twice this season. With both teams chasing the same prize, Hyderabad will be desperate to make it a third straight win—but their path could be blocked by a rising name who has been turning heads: 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.
The matchup has thrown up contrasting themes for Hyderabad in their meetings with Sooryavanshi this year. In the earlier encounter, SRH managed to contain him and limit his impact. But in the second game, the youngster produced a stunning batting display, launching a rapid century. Even so, Hyderabad still won both fixtures, keeping their advantage over Rajasthan intact.
Ahead of the Eliminator, Cummins addressed the challenge of planning for a batter of Sooryavanshi’s calibre. He stressed that while bowlers focus on their core strengths, top-class players require deeper preparation—especially when they can swing games on their own. The captain also indicated that Hyderabad have identified multiple approaches to counter the teenager, with the side ready to adapt if the first plan doesn’t work.
When asked about the need for backup strategies, Cummins said, “As a bowler, it’s always about understanding what you do well and how you’re going to bowl to your strengths. But when there are one or two players in every side who can take the game away from the opposition, you end up spending more time working on a Plan B or a Plan C. So, we’ll plan for him. Even though he scored a hundred against us last time, I felt there were moments when we actually bowled quite well and managed to keep him quiet. At other times, he got away from us. So we’ll learn from that.”
Cummins was also questioned on whether Hyderabad’s perfect record against Rajasthan this season could provide an extra lift going into the Eliminator. He played down any sense of complacency, underlining that knockout cricket resets the contest and demands a fresh mindset from ball one. Still, he acknowledged that previous meetings offer useful insights that can be carried into the high-pressure encounter.
“You’re obviously starting from scratch again, but you do take learnings from previous games,” Cummins said. “We’ve played them twice. We’ve had a good look at a lot of their players. A lot of our guys can reflect on those matches where they’ve had success and lean on that heading into the finals. So it’s always nice coming up against a team that you’ve had some success against.”
