Sooryavanshi takes Rajasthan Royals closer to play-offs

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continued his evening ritual of leaving spectators spellbound with a breathtaking 38-ball 93 as Rajasthan Royals moved closer to a playoff berth with a one-sided seven-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants in an IPL match here on Tuesday.

The 15-year-old, who is all set to board the flight to Dublin with the Indian senior team next month, was once again unstoppable, clobbering 10 sixes in an extraordinary display of bat speed and razor-sharp hand-eye coordination.

By the time, he missed out on his third IPL century by a mere seven runs, he had ensured Royals will make a meal of what could have been a tricky 221-run chase after Mitchell Marsh’s 57-ball-96 had taken LSG to 220 for 5.

And certainly, the icing on the cake was Ian Bishop’s line on air, one that could well be remembered for posterity: "He is ready."

Royals are now on 14 points and would need a win against Mumbai Indians in their last game to make it to play-off.

If Marsh was muscularity pro-max, Sooryavanshi was all about amazing skill-set where a leg-spinner’s slider delivered at an angle could be dispatched into extra cover stands with disdain.

While Marsh hit poor balls for sixes, Sooryavanshi sent the good ones sailing into the stands. And when it came to poor deliveries, he tortured them.

He is well on his way (53) to break Chris Gayle’s (59) record of maximum sixes in a season.  He is now 26 runs short of completing 600 runs in the season.

Dhruv Jurel completed the chase with an unbeaten 38-ball 53 but the night unquestionably belonged to the teenage sensation.

Mayank Yadav, the man who burst into the 2024 IPL as India’s fastest ever bowler, was dispatched for 29 runs in a single over. The short balls were pulled, the fuller ones were driven and anything with width was flayed.

The drooping shoulder of Prince Yadav, who got his maiden India call-up on the day, said it all.

LSG skipper Rishabh Pant, already reeling under pressure to revive his white-ball international career, looked increasingly helpless as the carnage unfolded around him.

Earlier, Marsh trumped Royals attack with a 57-ball- 96 but Jofra Archer’s five-run final over did boost the home team’s confidence.

After Jos Inglis’ 29-ball-60 provided the initial impetus, Marsh, nicknamed as ‘Bison’ in the cricketing universe, displayed ox-like muscularity smashing 11 fours and five sixes, once again emerging as his team’s batting hero for the umpteenth time during the current season. This was his third score of 90 or more in one season.

In a season full of disappointments for LSG, Marsh’s performance (563 runs in 13 games) has been the only saving grace for Sanjeev Goenka’s men.

Royals, who need to win the last two games to qualify for the play-offs, were below par with the ball with questions being raised about stand-in skipper Yashasvi Jaiswal’s decision to bowl first on a good batting deck.

The platform was, however, set by Inglis during the Powerplay overs as he hit seven fours and three sixes in an opening stand of 109 in just over eight overs.

In the past few games, Royals bowling attack hasn’t been able to make inroads in the Powerplay overs, something that has affected its performance.

While Inglis attacked Jofra Archer to put a spanner in Royals’ strategy, Marsh did keep up the pace with his powerful hits -- especially the pull-shots that sailed into the stands.

Once Inglis was dismissed, Marsh took charge as one of his best shots was a six over extra cover -- a perfect union of power and timing. Nicholas Pooran (16 off 11) didn’t score many and Rishabh Pant (35 off 23 balls) despite a 64-run third wicket stand never looked convincing. He wasted a lot of deliveries and it seemed that recent developments in his international career (removed from Test vice captaincy and dropped from ODIs) is bothering him.

The likes of Sushant Mishra (0/46 in 4 overs), Brijesh Sharma (0/44 in 4 overs), Sandeep Sharma (0/43 in 3 overs) erred in lengths against Marsh even as young leg-spinner Yash Raj Punja (2/35) did trouble the batters.

But in a must-win game, bowlers were a real letdown for Royals save the 20th over by Jofra Archer (1/39 in 4 overs) where he bowled four dot balls to a rampaging Marsh, who missed his second century of the season by a mere four runs.