Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was forced to leave the field after an injury scare during Rajasthan Royals’ IPL 2026 meeting with Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday. The concern surfaced while SRH were chasing 229 runs, moments after Sooryavanshi’s earlier batting fireworks had helped RR set a daunting target.
Quick facts
- Match: Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (IPL 2026) on Saturday
- Target set by RR: 229 runs
- Injury moment: during SRH’s chase, in the third over
- Injury type: hamstring issue (reported as cramp)
- Sooryavanshi’s contribution: 103 off 37 balls (five fours, 12 sixes)
- Key RR partnership: 112 runs between Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel
- Late RR boost: Donovan Ferreira scored 33 off 13 balls (three fours, three sixes)
In the third over of SRH’s chase, Sooryavanshi went after a shot from Ishan Kishan. He suddenly slowed down and grabbed his hamstring, immediately looking to be in significant discomfort. Team medical staff stepped in and assisted him off the ground.
Earlier in the day, the same batter had been the headline act. After a blistering second IPL century, the Rajasthan Royals teenager—listed at 15 years old—became both the youngest and the quickest player to reach the 1,000-run mark in T20 cricket.
Sooryavanshi’s milestone made it a record night
Sooryavanshi produced a dominant display against a side viewed as a potential playoff contender. He smashed his way to 103 off 37 balls, striking at 278.38, with five boundaries and 12 maximums in the innings.
The feat also carried landmark credentials: he is the youngest to reach 1,000 T20 runs at the age of 15, and the fastest to the milestone in terms of balls faced. He arrived at 1,000 runs in just 473 deliveries, moving ahead of Australian rising talent Mitchell Owen (533 balls) and late Australian great Andrew Symonds (558 balls).
He reached the milestone in his 26th T20 innings, making him the fourth-fastest batter to 1,000 runs by innings count. Brad Hodge and Shaun Marsh, both Australian batters, remain ahead of him, having achieved the landmark in 23 innings.
Among the 1,069 batters who have accumulated 1,000 runs in T20s so far, Sooryavanshi stands out as the only player with a strike rate above 200—212.2. He also became the first uncapped batter to score two IPL centuries.
His impact wasn’t limited to big scores either. He moved to his fifty in only 15 balls, recording his third IPL half-century in 15 deliveries or fewer. In the process, he surpassed Australia’s Jake Fraser-McGurk, who had managed two such rapid half-centuries during the 2024 season while playing for Delhi Capitals.
With 12 sixes in the innings, Sooryavanshi also overtook Chennai Super Kings and India icon Murali Vijay, who had struck 11 sixes against the same opposition back in 2010. It was another reminder of how consistently he attacked the bowling.
This season, Sooryavanshi has scored 357 runs across eight innings, averaging 44.62 with a strike rate of 234.86. His tally includes one century and two fifties. At the time of writing, he was holding the Orange Cap for most runs in the tournament.
RR’s batting set the stage for a chase in which Sooryavanshi’s innings mattered even more. Rajasthan Royals required a defendable total of 229 to claim their fifth win of the season, while SRH needed to chase it down to secure their own fifth victory.
Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel took control with a 112-run partnership, with Sooryavanshi finishing on 103 off 37 balls (five fours, 12 sixes) and Jurel contributing 51 off 35 balls (eight fours and a six). A late cameo from Donovan Ferreira—33 off 13 balls, featuring three fours and three sixes—helped RR close strongly.
For SRH, Eshan Malinga returned figures of 2/38, while Pat Cummins, Praful Hinge, Sakib Hussain, and Nitish Kumar Reddy each grabbed a wicket. Sakib, though, was the most expensive, conceding 62 runs in his spell.
