Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals (243/8 in 20 ovs) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (196-all out in 19.2 ovs) by 47 runs in the IPL Eliminator at Mullanpur.
SRH vs RR: HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD
The only time Vaibhav Suryavanshi was kept quiet during Wednesday’s IPL Eliminator in Mullanpur was during a game of football. Before the toss, he joined his teammates for a kickabout – and struggled. He couldn’t hold possession, lost the ball easily, and even attempted a nutmeg on a teammate, only to come off second best.
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That was the last time anyone got the better of Vaibhav Suryavanshi on Wednesday night. The 15-year-old wunderkind, who has been producing one beyond-believable knock after another, delivered one of the greatest innings ever seen in an IPL knockout. He smashed 97 off just 29 balls, laying a sensational platform as Rajasthan Royals outclassed SunRisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator and moved one step closer to the final.
Suryavanshi hit 12 sixes and five boundaries, falling agonisingly short of the fastest IPL century ever. Despite Rajasthan losing momentum in the death overs – managing just 63 runs in the final seven – they sealed a comfortable 47-run win in their defence of 243.
The SunRisers crumbled under the weight of the scoreboard. If Sooryavanshi was the story with the bat, it was Jofra Archer who twisted the knife. The English fast bowler all but ended the contest inside the powerplay, removing the backbone of the SunRisers’ batting – Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, and Ishan Kishan – in quick succession, leaving the chase in tatters before it had truly begun.
Ishan Kishan’s 33 off 11 balls offered the Hyderabad faithful—many of whom had made the long trip up north – a brief flicker of hope. But Archer’s pace had already done the real damage, and leg-spinner Yash Raj Punja, quietly making a name for himself in his maiden IPL season, snuffed out the biggest threat with the wicket of Heinrich Klaasen for 18.
At 87 for 5, the SunRisers were all but done. These four had carried the bulk of their scoring all season. When they were gone, so were the hopes of keeping the dream alive. Salil Arora and Nitish Kumar Reddy both chipped in with 35 apiece and showed some spirit, but Jadeja, Burger, and Sushant Mishra – the Impact Player sub—ensured there would be no miracle finish. SunRisers were bowled out for 196.
The contrast between the two innings could not have been starker. Rajasthan’s batting had moved like a bullet train – loud, relentless, leaving everything behind in a blur. The SunRisers’ chase, by comparison, felt like a bloated three-hour film with a foregone conclusion: meandering, joyless, and over long before the credits rolled.
Rajasthan now face a wounded Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2 in Mullanpur on Friday. For the SunRisers, it was a cruel end – a side who missed out on a top-two finish purely on Net Run Rate, only to be comfortably dismantled in the boom-or-bust encounter by a 15-year-old who has been doing precisely this to opposition attacks since the day he arrived on the scene.
DOESN’T SOORYAVANSHI FEEL PRESSURE?
How do you even measure pressure where Suryavanshi is concerned? This is the boy who buried England with a 175 off 80 balls in the U19 World Cup final earlier this year. And his 10th board exams, the rite of passage that sends most Indian teenagers into a spiral of anxiety? He had the luxury of skipping them altogether. If you were waiting for an IPL Eliminator to find out whether big moments faze him, Wednesday night gave you your answer.
Business as usual. After seeing off a couple of Cummins yorkers in the first over, Suryavanshi did what he does best – hit sixes against bowlers of the highest repute, unbothered by their reputations, focused only on the ball leaving their hand. He hit 12 of them on the night, taking his seasonal tally to 65 and breaking Chris Gayle’s record for the most sixes in an IPL season.
Twelve of the 29 balls he faced went for six. He took Cummins apart in the third over – two half-volleys dispatched into the stands, then a slower one picked early and flat-batted rows deep into the crowd. That over made his intentions plain for anyone still unsure. He was out there to enjoy himself, leaving the anxiety of a knockout match to the seniors around him.
“Coaches were telling me to repeat what I do in practice and enjoy the game,” he said, when asked if the big occasion weighed on him.
Well. If only it were that simple for the other 23 players on the field.
Pat Cummins won the toss and put Rajasthan in – a decision that, for roughly eight overs, looked like a catastrophic miscalculation.
Rajasthan Royals posted 243 for 8 in their 20 overs, but the innings was emphatically a tale of two halves. The first half belonged entirely to one man. Three of their bowlers conceded 50-plus runs – the fifth instance of that happening in an IPL innings, and remarkably, each of the previous four had come against SRH themselves. This time, they were on the wrong end of it.
Pat Cummins conceded 64 runs – the most by any bowler in an IPL playoff game, eclipsing Varun Aaron’s 63 against CSK back in 2012. The Australian captain had no answers to the 15-year-old storm that swept New Chandigarh.
When Suryavanshi fell for 97 in the eighth over, Rajasthan were 103 for 2 and in need of someone to carry the momentum forward. Dhruv Jurel obliged emphatically. He brought up his sixth fifty of the season off just 20 balls – his most free-flowing of the lot – before falling next delivery, pulling Hinge to deep square leg. He had done enough.
Riyan Parag, nursing a hamstring injury and visibly running gingerly, chipped in with 26 off 12 before holing out to long-on off Hinge in the 16th over. After that, the death overs were a struggle. Rajasthan managed just 63 runs in the final seven overs, the lower order failing to capitalise on the platform the top order had so brilliantly laid. Ravindra Jadeja’s inability to inject pace in the death overs was laid bare once again as the senior man 12 off 9 deliveries while overseas finishers Donnovan Ferreira and Dasun Shanaka were not able to provide spark.
In an innings where 17 sixes were hit, there were a few instances towards the end where batters were scrambling between wickets. 243 felt slightly under par. Yes, you read that right. It felt slightly under par on a good Mullanpur surface, particularly against a SunRisers side capable of chasing anything. But as it turned out, it was more than enough.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
