Last Updated on 58 seconds ago by Charbel Coorey
Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins was full of praise for Rajasthan Royals’ young sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who decimated the SRH bowling attack in the IPL 2026 Eliminator.
The 15-year-old scored a remarkable 97 runs off just 29 deliveries, narrowly missing out on scoring the fastest IPL hundred ever. He started off in style, taking the SRH bowlers to the cleaners, including Pat Cummins, whom he scored 30 runs off in just eight deliveries.
Overall, Sooryavanshi hit 12 sixes in his innings – a record in an IPL playoffs game. The wonderkid also broke Chris Gayle’s record of most sixes in an IPL edition (59).
Options limited against Vaibhav Sooryavanshi – Pat Cummins
Cummins, in the post-match presentation, said that you don’t have too many options against Sooryavanshi. The SRH captain spoke of both his plan to try yorkers against the dynamic opener, and the risk associated with that option as well.
“Yeah, he played pretty well. Don’t feel like you have too many options,” Cummins said.
“Obviously, it’s a really good pitch, but the margins are so small, you know. You miss your yorker by a little bit; he doesn’t tend to miss them. So yeah, fair play.”
Cummins spoke further of Sooryavanshi’s brilliance in the press conference.
“I think he’s my new favourite player. He hits the ball so hard (laugh), it’s great to watch, it’s good fun. You’ve got to be right on the money as a bowler because if you’re not, it’s going a long way. He’s impressive, he’s had a great start to his career, and I like the way he plays, takes the game on.”
“Don’t need to have too many talks with Vaibhav”: Riyan Parag
Rajasthan skipper Riyan Parag said that they don’t have any conversations with Sooryavanshi. They just leave him alone and let him have fun. They give him a lot of batting practice, and he just goes on and performs during the matches.
Jofra Archer said that it’s exciting when he scores runs as the bowlers get more runs to defend. “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,” the RR pace bowler said.
The fastest century in the IPL remains with Chris Gayle, who scored a hundred in just 30 deliveries. Vaibhav was 97 of 28 in the Eliminator against SRH and had two deliveries to break Gayle’s record, but it wasn’t to be as he was caught at deep third man.
However, on current evidence, it is only a matter of time before Sooryavanshi breaks that record as well as many others across what promises to be a glittering career.
