Vaibhav Sooryavanshi turned the night into a knockout spectacle, blasting a scarcely-believable 97 off just 29 balls to etch his name in the record books in emphatic fashion. The knock helped Rajasthan Royals reach 243/8, the second-highest team total in IPL playoff history. Jofra Archer then set the tone early with a decisive Powerplay spell that disrupted Sunrisers Hyderabad’s chase. SRH fought hard to recover, but the chase never quite gathered enough momentum and they were left well short.
Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals 243/8 in 20 overs (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 97 off 29, Dhruv Jurel 50 off 21; Praful Hinge 3/54) defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad 196 all out in 19.2 overs (Ishan Kishan 33 off 11, Nitish Reddy 38 off 20, Salil Arora 35 off 21; Jofra Archer 3/58, Nandre Burger 2/26) by 47 runs.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi – 97 runs, 12 sixes, another mind-bending night It’s rare to see a 15-year-old batter in a men’s league rewrite the boundaries of what’s considered possible, yet Vaibhav Sooryavanshi did exactly that, powering IPL 2026 with a six-hitting masterclass. The first key number came early: on the second delivery of the fourth over, he struck his sixth six of the innings. That moment was remarkable on its own, but it also carried an added milestone—his season tally reached 60 maximums, eclipsing Chris Gayle’s 2012 benchmark of 59 sixes. On the last ball of the eighth over, he was close to yet another landmark, needing just one more strike to reach the fastest IPL century. Instead, he found a fielder and was dismissed for 97 off 29 balls.
To understand the first 45 minutes, start with Pat Cummins’ Powerplay planning. The captain shifted his boundary protection frequently, placing boundary riders in unusual positions—straight-backed alignments at times, with others covering square leg and one even stationed at deep extra cover. None of it stopped Sooryavanshi from finding scoring lanes. Cummins also rotated his most trusted bowling options early, delivering his key spells within the Powerplay—bowling first, then sending Eshan Malinga and Sakib Hussain into action as well. Even that intensity didn’t blunt the young batter’s momentum. In the third over, Sooryavanshi struck the SRH captain for three sixes. The pattern repeated in the fourth, when Sakib conceded the same number of maximums, as Sooryavanshi advanced to 54 off just 16 deliveries, with 48 of those runs coming in fours and sixes.
With the Powerplay over, Cummins tried to push the chase into a safer lane by setting five fielders deep, but Sooryavanshi kept upping the demand. He negotiated Sakib’s change in pace and then, in the eighth over, punished Praful Hinge with a boundary and three sixes. At that stage, he was perilously close to IPL history—only one six away from the fastest IPL century. The climax, though, arrived in a flat and sudden way. In the same over, he miscued a shot to third man and departed after a 29-ball 97, a knock that belonged among the great IPL playoff innings.
Dhruv Jurel with the baton Even after Sooryavanshi’s departure, SRH didn’t get the relief they were searching for. Yashasvi Jaiswal couldn’t produce the same impact as his opening partner, but Dhruv Jurel stepped forward and took on the role of accelerator. He attacked Shivang Kumar and effectively erased any notion that Cummins might force an early breakthrough by bringing the pressure back on himself. Jurel lofted, pulled, and drove the SRH captain in a 17-run over, then followed it with a couple of boundaries off Eshan Malinga. His half-century arrived from 20 balls, but the innings ended on the 21st. Riyan Parag added runs off Sakib in the 15th over, yet Rajasthan’s momentum later dipped.
What regression? The decline became especially visible in the death overs. Rajasthan managed only 36 runs in that phase and lost five wickets, which threatened to pull the innings down from a very high ceiling. Still, the turning point SRH had hoped for didn’t fully arrive. Cummins and his bowlers kept RR pinned under the 250 mark, leaving the chase within reach, particularly on a batting-friendly surface.
Ishan Kishan flies but SRH err Jofra Archer provided Rajasthan with the early control that set up their dominance with the ball. He dismissed Abhishek Sharma in the first over, but Ishan Kishan entered with unmistakable intent. Archer delivered one into his slot, which Kishan flicked over square leg. Travis Head then struck Nandre Burger for a low six followed by a four, and SRH raced to 35/1 in only two overs.
Archer’s next over started in a similar rhythm. Kishan cut one behind point and then cleared the ropes with two sixes in the next three deliveries. The over already brought 16 runs, but Kishan went looking for more and ended up missing a big hit, handing Donovan Ferreira an opportunity at cover. That risk was the danger SRH faced—after starting comfortably well ahead of the required pace, they could easily fall into the trap of over-committing at the top. Smaran Ravichandran was sent in at No. 4 and departed in the fourth over, bowled by Nandre Burger. That brought Head and Heinrich Klaasen together, a partnership that still had the potential to push RR right to the end.
However, Head chose to challenge Archer in the third over of the Powerplay and paid the price. He swung and missed a delivery travelling at 150.4 kmph, which snapped the off stump and ended his knock. SRH dragged their feet to 71/4 in six overs.
Yash Raj Punja stops Klaasen in his tracks Klaasen produced a moment of pure quality, launching a jaw-dropping six off the leggie. He moved outside the leg stump and struck a length ball over extra cover for a maximum. But the very next ball carried Klaasen’s name again. He missed a reverse sweep and was struck on the line. The on-field umpire initially disagreed, but a review flipped the decision in Rajasthan’s favour, securing the wicket and potentially swinging the game.
Nitish Reddy, Salil Arora offer faint hopes Nitish Reddy came in with aggression, even with the wickets column already showing five. He struck two fours against Sushant Mishra and followed that with two sixes off Punja, powering an 18-run surge that kept SRH’s chase alive. Hope flickered again in the next over when Salil Arora joined the scoring. He hit a flicked six and added two fours off Brijesh Sharma, lifting SRH to 132/5 after 10 overs.
Shivang Kumar delays the inevitable Pat Cummins then exited the contest quickly, but Rajasthan’s chase-control didn’t waver. Shivang Kumar fought to delay the end, swinging his bat to keep SRH within sight of their targets. He later suffered cramps and had to limp through the closing overs, yet despite the resistance, SRH finished 47 runs short of the mark.
What next for the teams? Sunrisers Hyderabad are finished for the season. Rajasthan Royals, meanwhile, live to fight another day and will set up a Qualifier 2 against Gujarat Titans at the same venue on May 29.
