Madness at Mullanpur: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s 97 wasn’t a powerful knock per se, it was a calculated attack

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi comes in to open during the Indian Premier League 2026 Eliminator match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. (OR) TimesofIndia.com v Mullanpur: A few days ago, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins admitted to TimesofIndia.com that he couldn’t do anything but go “wow” after Vaibhav Sooryavanshi ran into him during the league stage of IPL 2026.Fast forward to the Eliminator on Wednesday and a bowler of Cummins’ pedigree was once again searching for answers as the 15-year-old toyed with one of the game’s modern day greats.Sooryavanshi’s batting has often been hailed for the sheer ferocity of his bat swing, but he showed in Mullanpur on Wednesday that there is much more to his game than brute force. Behind the power lies a sharp cricket brain. He didn’t just hit the ball, he read the pitch, anticipated the plans and was one step ahead of one of the best bowlers in the world.The best example was Cummins’ second game, where the teenager hit a hat-trick of sixes, displaying a maturity far beyond his years. On one delivery, Cummins pushed the fielder back to third man and Sooryavanshi calmly lifted the ball straight down the ground. The field changed again, a third man was brought into the circle and sent back long away. Cummins tried to tempt the youngster with a short ball but Sooryavanshi read the plan immediately and cut it over third man for a six.Cummins shuffled the pitch once more – using two short mid-offs and one mid-on – and rolled his fingers over the ball, taking the pace off it. Sooryavanshi picked it early, waited and then smoked it straight over the bowler’s head for the third maximum in a row.It wasn’t a reckless dribbling of the ball.This was calculated destruction.In an exhibition of fearless batting that looked like a glimpse into the future of T20 cricket, Sooryavanshi powered his way to 97 off just 29 deliveries. He fell agonizingly short of the fastest century in IPL history (30 balls), a record held by Chris Gayle for 13 years, but not before hitting another stunning milestone.Gayle’s tally of 60 sixes in the 2012 season has long served as a benchmark for power play dominance. Sooryavanshi’s breathtaking attack took him beyond that boundary, with the teenager smoking 12 sixes in an innings that equaled mayhem and mastery.

Dejected Vaibhav Sooryavanshi after falling for 97 runs in IPL Eliminator vs SRH. (screengrab)

Then came the moment no one wanted except those who wear Orange.As Smaran Ravichandran held on to third man, the stadium fell silent briefly.Sooryavanshi stood frozen. He stared off into the distance, almost refusing to believe what had happened. He was just three runs away from immortality, three runs away from the fastest hundred in IPL history. The dream vanished in an instant.As Sunrisers Hyderabad players ran to pat him on the back, Sooryavanshi looked despondent. He hit the bat in frustration and suffered the pain of every fan in the stadium. But thousands rose up around him, knowing they had witnessed something far greater than a lost record.Entries can wait. They can be broken the next day.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi of Rajasthan Royals plays a shot during the IPL 2026 Eliminator match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. (NOT a photo)

After the match, Sooryavanshi admitted his mistake in getting sent off. “I played that shot on purpose because I saw the fielder where he was standing. I was trying to hit it a lot more square. If I had played the ramp towards third man, it would have gone to the fence,” he told television stations.What happened in Mullanpur will not be about the next three runs and all that comes with it. It was about a 15-year-old boy who stepped onto one of cricket’s biggest stages and made seasoned international stars look ordinary. It was about fearlessness, clarity and audacity. It was about hitting a teenager like pressure was just a word in the dictionary.The score remembers it as 97 off 29 balls. The IPL may remember it as the night Vaibhav Sooryavanshi told the world that he can do it in pressure cooker games as well as in league encounters.But those who watched it will remember something else.They will remember the night the future came.