Madness in Mullanpur: Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s 97 was not power-hitting alone, it was a calculated attack. cricket news
In timesofindia.com Mullanpur: : Captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad a few days ago pat cummins Admitted to TimesofIndia.com that he couldn’t help but say “wow” after Vaibhav Suryavanshi took a jibe at him during the IPL 2026 league stage.Fast forward to the eliminator on Wednesday and a bowler of Cummins’s pedigree was once again left searching for answers as the 15-year-old toyed with one of the game’s modern greats.Suryavanshi’s batting has often been celebrated for the violence of his bat, but on Wednesday in Mullanpur he showed that there is more to his game than brute strength. Beyond power is a sharp cricketing mind. He wasn’t just hitting the ball, he was reading the field, anticipating plans and staying one step ahead of one of the best bowlers in the world.The best example came in Cummins’ second over, where the teenager displayed maturity beyond his years and hit a hat-trick of sixes. On one ball, Cummins pushed a fielder towards third man and Suryavanshi calmly threw the ball straight to the ground. The field changed again, third man was brought inside the circle and sent back to long-off. Cummins tried to tempt the youngster with a short ball, but Suryavanshi quickly understood the plan and upper-cut it over third man for six runs.Cummins once again shuffled the field – using two short mid-offs and one mid-on – and moved his fingers on the ball, reducing its pace. Suryavanshi picked it up early, waited and then hit it straight over the bowler’s head for the third consecutive time.This was not careless ball-striking.From this the destruction was calculated.In an exhibition of fearless batting that felt like a glimpse of the future of T20 cricket, Suryavanshi scored 97 runs off just 29 balls. He fell well short of the fastest century in IPL history (30 balls), a record held by Chris Gayle for 13 years, but not before crossing another stunning milestone.Gayle’s tally of 60 sixes in the 2012 season had long become a benchmark of power-hitting dominance. Suryavanshi’s breathtaking attack took him past the mark, with Kishore hitting 12 sixes in an innings that was equal parts mayhem and mastery.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi disappointed after being dismissed for 97 runs in IPL eliminator vs SRH. (screen grab)
Then came the moment no one wanted except those who wear orange.When Smaran Ravichandran took the catch at third man, there was silence in the stadium for a while.Suryavanshi stood frozen. He continued staring into the distance, almost refusing to believe what had happened. He was just three runs away from immortality, three runs away from the fastest century IPL History. The dream was gone in an instant.As Sunrisers Hyderabad players rushed to pat him on the back, Suryavanshi looked inconsolable. He punched his bat in frustration which broke the hearts of every fan present in the stadium. However, around him, thousands stood up because they knew they had seen something much greater than a missed record.Records can wait. They may fall apart some other day.
Rajasthan Royals’ Vaibhav Suryavanshi plays a shot during the IPL 2026 Eliminator match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. (ANI photo)
After the match, Suryavanshi admitted her mistake in getting out. “I played that shot deliberately because I saw the fielder where he was standing. I tried to hit it more square. If I had played the ramp towards third man, it would have gone to the fence,” he told the broadcasters.Whatever unfolded in Mullanpur would not be about three more runs and everything that came with it. It was about a 15-year-old kid walking onto one of cricket’s biggest stages and making seasoned international stars look ordinary. It was about fearlessness, clarity and audacity. It was about a teenager batting as if pressure was just a word in the dictionary.The scoreboard will remember it as 97 runs on 29 balls. The IPL may remember it as the night when Vaibhav Suryavanshi told the world that he can do the same in pressure cooker games as he has done in league fixtures.But those who saw it unfold will remember something else.They will remember the night the future arrived.