A breathtaking 36-ball century from Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, now the third-fastest ton in Indian Premier League’s (IPL) history, may not have been enough to take Rajasthan Royals over the line, but it certainly left a lasting impression on everyone, including the opposition skipper Pat Cummins.
The Aussie pacer, leading Sunrisers Hyderabad, was full of praise for the 15-year-old sensation, admitting he was blown away by the fearless approach.
“I think he’s my new favourite player. He hits the ball so hard, it’s great to watch, it’s good fun,” Cummins said of Sooryavanshi in a post-match presentation.
“You’ve got to be right on the money as a bowler, because if you’re not, it’s going a long way. So he’s impressive. Yeah, he’s had a great start to his career and yeah, I love the way he plays, takes the game on,” he continued.
The contest got off to a fiery start when the very first delivery from Cummins was dispatched for a six by the youngster. Sooryavanshi has already shown remarkable composure against some of the best bowlers, including Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, and Arshdeep Singh.
Cummins, who was playing his first game of the season after returning from rehab, also shared his thoughts on the growing chatter around high-scoring encounters in the IPL. Saturday alone witnessed a staggering 986 runs across two matches.
“Look, maybe. I think it’s just the way it is. The wickets might be flat, but it’s only 20 overs, you know, so it’s not a Test match where it’s flat and they’ve had a bat for five days, so I’m okay with that. It’s a maximum of four overs. Yeah, it’s fine. It is what it is,” said Cummins.
“We set up our team, obviously, to try and go big on our batting, and as bowlers it’s up to us to try and minimise the runs. The scores look a little bit different to maybe a few years ago, but the concept’s still the same. Yeah, I don’t mind it,” he continued.
When asked about the challenge of bowling to deep batting line-ups on flat surfaces with shorter boundaries, the SRH skipper maintained a positive mindset.
“It’s fine, it’s a good challenge. You know, you can have a bad couple of overs, but you feel like if you come back and bowl a really good death over, then that can be match winning. So I actually think in some ways it takes the pressure off us bowlers, knowing that our batting line-up can chase whatever, maybe the scores are going to be big,” he concluded.
SRH registered a five-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals at the Samai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur with a clinical chase. Ishan Kishan was named the player of the match for his 74-run knock.
