Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continues to be the talking point in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The 15-year-old is showing signs of stopping as he even took on the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult – two world-class bowlers – despite facing them for the first time in his career. His duel with Bumrah was the most significant attraction of the evening and Sooryavanshi smashed the first ball from him for a six.
Even Boult was not spared as the teenager smashed 39 runs off 14 deliveries to get the Rajasthan Royals off to a flyer in the 11-over per side contest. He added 80 runs in just five overs with Yashasvi Jaiswal as the Royals posted a mammoth total of 150 runs in 11 overs to eventually win the game by 27 runs.
While Jaiswal won the player of the match award for his unbeaten 77, it was Sooryavanshi who earned special praise from Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya. He wished Vaibhav all the luck for his future and also admitted that the batter was dicsussed a lot in the preparation leading up to the clash. Hardik is also in awe of Vaibhav’s fearlessness and the shots he is able to play at such a young age.
“It’s quite fascinating to see a 17 or a 16-year-old boy and playing the way he played. At the same point of time, discussing so much about him in the preparation leading up to the game. So yeah, amazing to see the way he bats, the kind of fearlessness he has, the kind of shots he has. I wish him absolute good luck in the future,” Hardik said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Hardik Pandya blames bowlers for the loss
As far as the game is concerned, Hardik Pandya felt that it was their bowling attack that let the team down in the shortened encounter. He felt that the bowlers must take responsibility as the execution was not great at the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati by the five-time champions.
“I think we didn’t execute the deliveries which we were supposed to and they played well. Our bowlers need to take the responsibility. As a bowling group, we were not at all up to the mark and they played tremendous cricket.ย I would not put this game on the batting. This was definitely the bowling unit which had to take responsibility. It’s T20 cricket, it’s about always bowling those right couple of balls. And if you see 27, that means we are talking about five good balls and five less sixes. So if we would have executed the right balls, yeah, we would have been in the game,” Hardik added.
Mumbai Indians next face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a blockbuster clash at the Wankhede Stadium on April 12 (Sunday).
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