Rajasthan Royals delivered a batting masterclass in the high-stakes Eliminator match against Sunrisers Hyderabad as they moved one step closer to the final of the Indian Premier League.
Riding on the speed of young sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi's batsmanship, Rajasthan ripped through the Hyderabad bowling attack and reached the team's hundred in just 50 deliveries. It became the second fastest team century in an IPL knockout match. The fastest is held by Chennai Super Kings, who scored 100 runs in 6 overs against Punjab in Qualifier 2 of the 2014 season.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi was once again the biggest highlight of Rajasthan’s innings with a brilliant knock. The young man scored 97 runs off 29 balls, hitting five boundaries and 12 sixes. He looked on his way to a century before falling to Praful Hinge, with Karnataka cricketer Samran Ravichandran taking the catch.
Suryavanshi has now scored twelve sixes in the innings and is now the batter with the most sixes in an IPL knockout match. He overtook Shubman Gill, who had 10 sixes against the Mumbai Indians in Ahmedabad in the 2023 playoffs. Rajat Patidar is next after smashing nine sixes against the Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1 earlier this season.
The innings also saw Suryavanshi rewrite IPL history by breaking a legendary record of Chris Gayle for the past 14 years. Gayle held the record for the most sixes in a single IPL season since 2012, as he scored 59 sixes in 14 innings for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Suryavanshi has now gone past that mark with 65 sixes in 15 innings this season, and it is an all-time IPL record.
In addition to that memorable six-hit effort, Suryavanshi also climbed to the top of the Orange Cap list with his explosive innings. The Rajasthan Royals batter has now scored 680 runs in 15 matches this season, including one century and four half-centuries. Sai Sudharsan of the Gujarat Titans slipped to second place with 652 runs.
