MUMBAI: At Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Tuesday, the batting fireworks began from the first over after the home team captain, Yashasvi Jaiswal, put the Lucknow Super Giants in to bat.
LSG’s opening pair of Mitch Marsh and Josh Inglis had a rollicking stand of 109 in 8.2 overs. Taking turns to attack different bowlers, the duo fully capitalised on the field restrictions, smashing 83 runs in the Powerplay. Marsh’s power play was on display during his knock of 96 off 57 balls (11×4, 5×6) while Inglis played with enterprise on way to a 60 off 29 balls. RR’s Jaiswal also blazed to a 23-ball 43.
Teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, however, put everyone’s innings to shade with an extraordinary show of hitting on way to 93 off 38 balls (strike rate 244.73). Riding on their opener’s brilliance, RR carved out a crucial seven-wicket win chasing a target of 221. It took their tally to 14 points from 13 games and lifted them to fourth spot in the table. A win in their last league game (v MI in Mumbai) will seal their playoffs berth.
Sooryavanshi had the home crowd in ecstasy with his show of six-hitting. His 10 sixes on Tuesday took his tally to 53 in IPL 2026, which puts him on course to better Chris Gayle’s record of 59 sixes in a season. Surprisingly subdued at the start, getting to five off eight balls after the first three overs, the left-hander switched gears from the sixth over onwards to smash the daylights out of the LSG bowlers.
Sooryavanshi opened up in the fifth over against pacer Mayank Yadav with an extravagant six over cover. Next over, he targeted Prince Yadav for two fours and a six to help RR finish on 71 for no loss in Powerplay.
Immediately after, the onus fell on Sooryavanshi’s young shoulders after senior partner Jaiswal fell going for a drive against Akash Singh. Except for the sixth over assault on Mohsin Khan, the young gun had been playing within himself, and had mistimed a few. With the well-set Jaiswal gone, his side now needed a big one from him. The teenager didn’t disappoint. In Akash’s next over, the ninth of the innings, he smashed 26 runs with three fours and two sixes to complete his fifty off 23 balls. At the halfway mark, the equation was down to 100 off 60 balls.
Sooryavanshi smashed Prince for two sixes to ensure that after 11 overs, the two teams were at the same position. LSG were also 137/1 at that stage.
Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel (53*, 38b) plundered 29 runs off Mayank Yadav in the 12th over to turn the game into a no-contest. RR now needed to get 55 off 48 balls with nine wickets in hand. Sooryavanshi had hit four sixes in a row at that point. He finally fell in the 14th over, walking back to a standing ovation and pats from the opposition players.
RR’s captain of the day, Jaiswal, who was standing in for the injured Ryan Parag, played a crucial role in ensuring the teenager didn’t feel the pressure by taking on the bowlers with a flurry of boundaries at the start of the chase. In the first over he smashed four fours against Akash Singh during a 23-run over. Mohsin Khan and Mayank Yadav kept Sooryavanshi quiet in the second and third overs, conceding just two and five runs, but Jaiswal took apart Mohsin in the fourth over with three fours and a six to bring up the fifty in 4.2 overs, scoring 38 out of the fifty.
Brief scores: LSG 220/5 (M Marsh 96, J Inglis 60, Yash Raj 2/35). RR 225/3 in 19.1 overs (V Sooryavanshi 93, D Jurel 53*). RR won by 7 wickets