SRH vs RR: Pat Cummins Lavishes Praise On Vaibhav Sooryavanshi

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was the toast of the town as he lit up the IPL 2026 Eliminator clash with a stunning 29-ball 97 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad in New Chandigarh that helped and propelled Rajasthan Royals (RR) into Qualifier 2. SRH captain Pat Cummins, who opened the bowling and faced the brunt of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi‘s explosive batting, felt that the 15-year-old doesn’t leave bowlers with too many options.

Out of the 97 runs Sooryavanshi made on the night, 31 of them came off Cummins, who started out with a couple of yorkers against Sooryavanshi, the first of which he defended and then managed to squeeze one out for a single. When Sooryavanshi was back on strike one ball later, and Cummins missed his yorker, Sooryavanshi lofted it down the ground for his first six. In Cummins’ next over, Sooryavanshi went 4, 6, 6, 6 against him with a wide in between.

Pat Cummins’s opinion on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s innings. 

Speaking after the match, Pat Cummins said, “Yeah, he played pretty well. You don’t feel like you have too many options. Obviously, it’s a really good pitch, but the margins are so small you know. You miss your yorker by a little bit and he doesn’t tend to miss them. So, yeah, fair play,” 

Jofra Archer’s massive praise of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. 

Ace England and RR pacer Jofra Archer felt that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is capable of getting big centuries even in T20s. Speaking after the match, Jofra Archer said, “It was very exciting. The more runs he scores, the more runs we have to defend, so he can go on and get 150. It’s good for the boys when he gets a lot of runs.” 

Riyan Parag on leaving Vaibhav Sooryavanshi alone. 

RR captain Riyan Parag, meanwhile, said that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s teammates or coaches don’t need to have too many talks with the youngster. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Riyan Parag said, “That’s the thing, we don’t have any conversations. Yeah. Just leave him alone, let him go and have fun. He likes batting as I’ve said before, so we get him a lot of batting practice at the nets and stuff like that, and then he goes out and does his thing.”

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s knock helped RR post a massive 243/8, and Archer’s three early strikes then helped them restrict SRH to 196 to set up a Qualifier 2 clash against Gujarat Titans. That game will also be in New Chandigarh, where RR have four wins in four matches.

It remains to be seen whether Vaibhav Sooryavanshi can carry on and keep up this form in the qualifier 2 against GT. This one will be a virtual semi-final with the winner meeting RCB in the final. RR will be hoping Vaibhav Sooryavanshi performs to the optimum and blows GT away. It’s not going to be easy as GT has a quality bowling line-up. But the fact that RR has a great record in New Chandigarh and GT has the polar opposite record may make this game interesting and one that can go either way. RR needs to bring their A-game to upstage GT, who are a strong side.

Yashasvi Jaiswal needs to up the ante and come to the party in this clash, and Dhruv Jurel has to be the steady influence on the team batting at 3. If these three players that we mentioned perform as a unit, then RR has a good chance of upstaging wounded GT in New Chandigarh, where the record for GT is not great, while the record for RR is fantastic there. So, it’s all to play for in this massive clash on Friday.

Who comes out on top in this contest? Well, that remains to be seen at the end of Friday night in New Chandigarh in Qualifier 2.

Also Read: SRH vs RR: SRH, RR Face-Off In Must-Win Clash