Vaibhav Sooryavanshi produced a breathtaking display in the IPL 2026 Eliminator at New Chandigarh, smashing 97 off 29 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad to drive Rajasthan Royals (RR) into Qualifier 2. The 15-year-old’s timing and power left SRH captain Pat Cummins with very little margin for error as RR completed a hard-fought win.
Sooryavanshi’s innings and Cummins’ view
Out of Sooryavanshi’s 97, Cummins directly accounted for 31 runs in his spell—yet even that didn’t fully capture the impact of the young batter. Cummins began with a couple of yorkers against him; the first was well defended, and then Cummins managed to squeeze out a single. The moment the yorker was missed, the contest changed—on the very next delivery, Sooryavanshi lofted it straight down the ground for his first six.
In Cummins’ following over, Sooryavanshi took control in a hurry, striking 4, 6, 6, 6 off successive deliveries, with a wide thrown in between the big hits. The sequence underlined how quickly the innings flipped once the length and target were not spot on.
After the match, Cummins summed up the challenge of bowling to Sooryavanshi. “Yeah, he played pretty well. You don’t feel like you have too many options,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a really good pitch, but the margins are so small—you know, you miss your yorker by a little bit and he doesn’t tend to miss them. So yeah, fair play.”
Archer and Parag on what makes him dangerous
Jofra Archer added that Sooryavanshi’s ability to pile up massive totals isn’t limited to smaller bursts—he believes the teenager can convert his T20 dominance into even bigger landmarks. “It was very exciting. The more runs he scores, the more runs we have to defend, so he can go on and get 150. It’s good for the boys when he gets a lot of runs,” Archer said.
RR captain Riyan Parag, meanwhile, suggested that the best approach is to keep things simple around the youngster. “That’s the thing—we don’t have any conversations,” Parag said at the post-match presentation. “Yeah, just leave him alone, let him go and have fun. He likes batting like I’ve said before, so we get him a lot of batting practice at the nets and stuff like that, and then he goes out and does his thing.”
How the Eliminator unfolded
- Sooryavanshi’s 29-ball 97 powered RR to a total of 243 for 8.
- Archer provided the early breakthrough for RR with three wickets, helping keep SRH under pressure.
- Despite Sooryavanshi’s late-innings momentum, SRH were restricted to 196, handing RR passage to Qualifier 2.
- Qualifier 2 is set to be played in New Chandigarh, with RR scheduled to face Gujarat Titans.
- RR will enter the next match with strong home momentum, having won four times in four matches at the venue.
