Vaibhav Sooryavanshi gave Jasprit Bumrah a perfect welcome to the bowling crease in Guwahati on Tuesday. Facing the world’s best bowler for the first time, Sooryavanshi deposited the pace spearhead for a maximum over the on-side off the very first ball.
In the same over, the 15-year-old left-hander smashed a shorter one from Bumrah for another six. Sooryavanshi’s fearlessness against Bumrah and his 80-run opening stand with Yashasvi Jaiswal (77 not out off 32 balls) in just five overs proved critical in Rajasthan Royals’ 27-run win over Mumbai Indians in the rain-curtailed game at the ACA Stadium.
Thanks to Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi (39 off 14), the Royals, put into bat, could post 150/3 in the 11-overs-a-side game (3.2 overs of Powerplay). Mumbai, in reply, lost Ryan Rickelton, Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma inside the first three overs and couldn’t recover, eventually finishing at 123/9.
While Jofra Archer induced a mishit from Rickelton, Nandre Burger had Surya holing out at deep before Sandeep Sharma’s yorker-length delivery trapped Rohit LBW. The task was uphill from there for Tilak Varma and captain Hardik Pandya.
Three wins in a row take the Royals on top of the table, and for that, credit goes to the opening pair. The unbeaten Jaiswal set it up for the Royals with a six and four boundaries in the opening over, riding on Mumbai’s tactical error in letting Deepak Chahar begin the proceedings. But thereafter, it was about Sooryavanshi’s ability to express himself against Bumrah.
The last time Bumrah looked rattled was in the Boxing Day Test of December 2024, when Australian opener Sam Konstas had taken him on. Close to 16 months later, Bumrah had to bow to fearlessness once again.