West Indies legend Chris Gayle was in awe of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi after the youngster’s 29-ball-97 for Rajasthan Royals during the IPL 2026 Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
West Indies cricket icon Chris Gayle hailed India and Rajasthan Royals (RR) 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for his sensational 29-ball 97 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) eliminator, which saw the teenager overtake the ‘Universe Boss’ for most sixes in a single IPL edition. Sooryavanshi saved his best for the knockouts, brutalising an intelligent, in-form SRH bowling line-up with a marvellous 97 in 29 balls, with five fours and 12 sixes at a strike rate of over 334. He went past Gayle’s 59 IPL 2012 sixes and sits on 65 sixes this season, the most-ever in a T20 tournament. Posting on Instagram, Gayle said, “Outstanding @Vaibhav_Sooryavanshi09, a new six machine @iplt20”.
He also cheered up Sooryavanshi on missing out on what could have been the fastest IPL hundred in 29 balls, another record which Gayle holds. He said that while Sooryavanshi was “unlucky”, he will “get there eventually.”
In this season, Sooryavanshi has smashed 680 runs in 15 innings at an average of 45.33 and a strike rate of 242.85, including a century and four fifties, with a best score of 103. He has smashed 55 fours and 65 sixes in 280 balls faced. His balls per boundary shot ratio is 2.3, and balls per six ratio is 4.3. This season, Sooryavanshi has scored 88.9 per cent of his runs through fours and sixes, as compared to Andre Russell’s 85.5 per cent of 510 runs through boundaries in the 2019 IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), as per CricViz.
Sooryavanshi has also levelled with Gayle for most instances of hitting 10-plus sixes in an IPL innings, a total of four times. Three of these occasions have come this season, making him the first batter to hit 10-plus sixes in three IPL innings in a season.
The 15-year-old’s take down of cricket legends one by one continues as he also surpassed Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya’s tally of seven powerplay sixes during the IPL 2008 clash between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), with eight sixes in the powerplay at Mullanpur.
Sooryavanshi is the batter with the most runs coming in the powerplay during an IPL season, with 490 runs, overtaking Australian legend David Warner, who scored 467 runs for SRH in the 2016 edition.
This is also his fifth fifty-plus score in the power play in IPL, with only Warner (six such scores) ahead of him.
He has also joined Suresh Raina (87 against Punjab Kings in 2014) and Adam Gilchrist (74 against Delhi Daredevils in 2009) for fifty-plus scores made during powerplay in an IPL knockout/playoff match.
This is Sooryavanshi’s fifth fifty in less than 20 balls, with only Abhishek Sharma (six) above him.
The 15-year-old’s 16-ball half-century tied with Raina’s 16-ball fifty (against PBKS in 2014) for the joint-fastest fifty in an IPL knockout/playoff match.
Twelve sixes smashed by him are also the most in an innings by a batter in IPL knockouts/playoffs, outdoing Shubman Gill’s 10 sixes against the Mumbai Indians (MI) in 2023. Sooryavanshi has the most sixes in an IPL inning by an Indian as well.
Ninety-seven runs by Sooryavanshi is the second-highest individual score for RR in an IPL knockouts/Playoffs game, behind 106* runs by Jos Buttler against RCB in the qualifier 2 of IPL 2022.
This is the most runs an uncapped batter has scored in an IPL season, overtaking his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal’s tally of 625 runs in the 2023 season. Also, he is the youngest to complete 600 runs in an IPL season.
Before the left-handed sensation arrived on the scene, no other batter in T20 history had smashed 600 runs in a T20 tournament while also striking at 200-plus.
