Rajasthan Royals 243 for 8 (Sooryavanshi 97, Jurel 50, Hinge 3-54) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 196 (Reddy 38, Arora 35, Kishan 33, Archer 3-58, Burger 2-26) by 47 runs
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is enjoying one of the most extraordinary seasons not just of the IPL, not just of T20, and not just of cricket but of all sport and all time. He produced his most extraordinary effort of this extraordinary season in the Eliminator, narrowly missing out on one of the IPL's most coveted records but putting Rajasthan Royals (RR) on course for what turned out to be a thumping win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Sooryavanshi, 15, swept past numerous records over the course of his innings - among them the most sixes by any batter in a T20 tournament - and he came within one shot of breaking Chris Gayle's record for the fastest IPL century (30 balls) only to top-edge an attempted uppercut to deep third to fall for 97 off 29 balls.
RR's innings fell away after that innings and a 21-ball 50 from Dhruv Jurel, and they ended up seven short of the 250 that had at one stage seemed a formality. But it still proved more than sufficient thanks to yet another impactful new-ball burst from Jofra Archer. His spell against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Sunday had been key to RR making the playoffs, and he followed up with three wickets in three powerplay overs to hold back an SRH top order that began the chase with an ominous flurry of boundaries.
A second-wicket stand of 51 off just 15 balls from Ishan Kishan and Travis Head was threatening to turn this game into a repeat of the last meeting between these sides - Sooryavanshi had scored 103 off just 37 balls that day, but SRH had fired from both ends where RR had fired from just one - but Archer made sure that didn't happen, dismissing both of them. He had already bounced out Abhishek Sharma before that; this was a truly special display against one of the most dangerous top threes in all T20 cricket.
RR eventually won by 47 runs, setting up a meeting with Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2 on Friday.
More to follow
