IPL 2026: Fortune favours brave Vaibhav!

RR’s opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi during his quickfire 39 off 14 balls against MI in Guwahati on Tuesday. Pic/IPL

While teen Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 15, continues to rock IPL-19, there's a strong tendency for his aficionados to ignore the fact that he has ridden his luck on quite a few occasions.

For instance, Sooryavanshi could've been dismissed off the very first ball he faced in this IPL. In RR's first match (March 30), Chennai Super Kings speedster Matt Henry - in the third ball of the very first over of the innings - bowled it short at Sooryavanshi, who miscued his pull shot towards deep midwicket. CSK's Kartik Sharma ran backwards and got both hands to the ball, but couldn't hold on, else it would've been a golden duck for the teenager. The ball trickled across the boundary rope, earning Sooryavanshi his first of four boundaries in a 17-ball 52-run hurricane.

Two balls later, Henry again tested Sooryavanshi with a short one. This time, the youngster swung his bat, sending the ball skyward and not where he intended, but in no man's land at backward point.

Then, in the first ball of the next over, pacer Khaleel Ahmed beat Sooryavanshi with an inswinger, but DRS showed the ball was just going over leg stump.

Another CSK pacer, Anshul Kamboj, thereafter beat Sooryavanshi with a 134 kmph-plus scorcher in the fifth over. The teen cluelessly inside-edged this one and the ball missed leg stump before running away to the fine leg fence.

In RR's next match against Gujarat Titans (April 4), Sooryavanshi made an 18-ball 31, but not without some good fortune again.

In the fourth over of the innings, he drove Kagiso Rabada to Rashid Khan at mid-off and set off for a dangerous single. Had Rashid hit the stumps at the non-striker's end, Sooryavanshi would have been out on 18.

In the very first ball of the next over, Ashok Sharma tested Sooryavanshi with a 145 kmph-plus short one and the batter went after it only to get an edge that was put down by a diving wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. Again, the ball eventually trickled over for a boundary.

11
No. of sixes smashed by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi this season; more than fours scored (10)