GUWAHATI: The 15-year old lived through a first-ball drop. But Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was undeterred, immediately picking up the cue from the Rajasthan Royals’ bowlers who ran through the Chennai Super Kings batting line up on Monday.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Set with an easy chase for a winning start to their 2026 Indian Premier League campaign, Rajasthan Royals’ wonder boy tore into the CSK attack to script a 15-ball halfcentury — the joint third fastest in IPL history. His experienced opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal took a backseat and was happy to just rotate strike and give Sooryavanshi more balls to face. Jaiswal remained unbeaten on 38 off 36 balls.The teenager departed scoring 52 off 17 balls hitting four boundaries and five sixes, but the match was as good as over by then. The 128-run target was attained, the win against Chennai Super Kings coming in just 12.1 overs with Royals losing only two wickets.When Sooryavanshi departed, the scoreboard read 75 for one in 6.2 overs.RR were 74 without loss after the Powerplay compared to CSK’s 41/4 at the same stage and that sums up the story for the night. Dhruv Jurel (18 off 9 balls) and captain Riyan Parag (14 not out off 11) played their part to round off a comfortable eight-wicket victory.Last season the Super Kings had a real problem in the middle order, which ultimately saw them finish at the bottom of the 10-team roster. In the campaign opener, the five-time champions’ entire batting order crumbled under overcast conditions at Barsapara Cricket Stadium.Home side Rajasthan Royals’ overseas pacers, Englishman Jofra Archer and South African Nandre Burger, exploited the ‘English’ conditions to their advantage to rock the Super Kings’ top order before the other Royals bowlers, including their veteran allrounder Ravindra Jadeja, joined the party to skittle CSK for 127 in 19.4 overs.Losing wickets at regular intervals, CSK were down to 9/94 in 16th over before Jamie Overton’s fighting 43 off 36 balls helped them to set a 128-run target.Spending considerable time under cover due to intermittent showers over the past week, the Guwahati pitch was moist and offered bounce and pace. The CSK batters failed to live up to the challenge.Sanju Samson, the wicketkeeper-batter who showed redhot form in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup, fell cheaply in his first game in yellow shirt against his former side. Left-arm quick Burger was right on the money in the last ball of second over, accounting for the Kerala opener with a 140 kmph-plus length delivery which rattled his off stump. The movement off the pitch cut short his debut for the Super Kings.Next over, again in the last ball, Archer’s 143kmph-plus fuller delivery upset CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad’s middle stump.Burger struck in the next ball, the first of his fourth over. His sharp bouncer took India’s U-19 World Cup-winning captain Ayush Mhatre’s gloves and wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel did the rest. CSK were down to 19/3.
| 15 – Balls taken by Sooryavanshi to reach 50, making him the joint third fastest half-centurion in the IPL. Yashasvi Jaiswal (13 balls), KL Rahul (14) and Yusuf Pathan (15) were the other Indians to achieve the feat in 15 balls or less. Sooryavanshi is the second fastest Royals player to reach the mark, behind Jaiswal.
62.12 – Average recorded as a pair by Sooryavanshi and Jaiswal while aggregating 497 in eight innings, including a 100+ and four fifty-plus. — Rajesh Kumar |
