Saturday turned out to be the day of chases.
After the Punjab Kings pulled off a stunning chase of a 265-run target in the afternoon game, Sunrisers Hyderabad flaunted their chasing skills in the evening as they mowed down the Rajasthan Royals’ 228/6 with nine balls remaining.
And like in the first game of the day, the team that had a centurion went on to lose the game. So just as KL Rahul’s stellar 152 not out was not enough to win Delhi Capitals the match, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s outstanding 103 off 37 balls too proved insufficient for his team, the Royals.
It was at the same Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur where a year ago, Sooryavanshi had announced his
arrival with a century on his debut IPL. On Saturday, however, the 15-year-old ended up on the losing side, thanks to his teammates’ poor bowling and catching.
But, despite the loss, Sooryavanshi stood out like a lighthouse. He became the youngest male cricketer to reach 1,000 T20 runs, smashing 12 maximums and five boundaries on Sunday.
The Sunrisers, bolstered by the return of their regular captain Pat Cummins (1/27), rode a blistering 132-run second-wicket stand in just 9.1 overs between Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan to make the tough chase look easy.
Royals’ Jofra Archer (2/34), who dismissed Travis Head in the first over of the chase, bowled well, but the others couldn’t complement him.
Costly drops
Following Sooryavanshi’s dismissal, the Royals couldn’t get beyond 58 off the remaining 6.1 overs as Cummins and Eshan Malinga exercised better control. The Sunrisers could have restricted their opponents to a much lower total, though, had Aniket Verma not shelled Sooryavanshi at the deep when he was on 32.
But the catches the Royals missed later to let Abhishek off were absolute sitters.
“Dropped a few too many catches. Quality players like Abhishek, you can’t drop quality batters. We could have been better on the field. We’ve got to be clinical. Fielding plays a major part in that,” rued Royals’ skipper Riyan Parag.