The 15-year-old once again showcased his wide range of strokes built on raw power and timing, as Rajasthan played their first home match of the season at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. He used the long handle to devastating effect, smashing 12 sixes compared to five fours in his 37-ball 103.
He reached his century with a six off Sakib Hussain (1/62) on his 36th delivery, registering the third fastest IPL hundred after his own 35-ball ton last year and Chris Gayle’s 30-ball blast for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in April 2013.
Sooryavanshi explosively got off the mark, hitting Praful Hinge (1/49) for two sixes on the leg side and two over the top on the final four balls of the opening over, setting a rapid tempo and never slowing down thereafter.
An on-song Sooryavanshi rarely missed a freebie to punish as he garnered runs on both the sides of the wicket while putting on two robust stands at the top to continue RR’s charge.
His rapid start helped in adding 40 runs off only 14 balls for the opening wicket while he consolidated for RR with a 112-run stand for the second wicket with Dhruv Jurel, who chipped in with a 35-ball 51 with eight fours and two sixes.
Sooryavanshi’s charge ended immediately after completing his ton when he missed a scoop off Hussain and was pinned in front of the stumps for a leg-before.
Meanwhile, Jurel was also lucky twice as Hussain could not hold on to two tough return chances in his follow-through.
Even as SRH managed to get the rid of the dangerous Yashasvi Jaiswal (10) early, they erred when the opportunity was created by Eshan Malinga (2/38) in the fifth over to remove Sooryavanshi.
On a length ball, Sooryavanshi looked to heave it to the on-side but mistimed it. Aniket Reddy covered some distance at deep midwicket on his right but the ball popped out of his hands for a costly drop.
Sooryavanshi went on to complete his fifty off 15 balls with a six in the sixth over from Hussain.
RR’s innings was also spruced up by Donovan Ferreira’s late 16-ball 33, studded with three sixes and as many fours.
Amid the charge from RR batters, SRH had their regular skipper Pat Cummins returning with impressive numbers of 4-0-27-1 with his solitary wicket being that of his counterpart Riyan Parag (7).
(With PTI inputs)