Suryavanshi shines bright with a knock of maturity

It is tough to look for positives in a season when your team has finished ninth in a 10-team competition, but Rajasthan Royals (RR) who promised much with abundant talent in their ranks but failed miserably this IPL season, sign off having helped ignite a bright spark that can glow beyond the glamorous T20 league.

- Shantanu Srivastava

NEW DELHI:

Their consolation six-wicket win over the abject five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Tuesday showed their 14-year-old batting sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi is more than a one-trick pony.

Having lit up 2025 IPL in a matter of seven innings with his imperious strokeplay, not many expected Suryavanshi to have the waiting game in his arsenal, that too for someone this young. Seen as a quintessential T20 product whose instinct is to go hell for leather, the Bihar batter showed remarkable restraint in his 33-ball 57 that laid the foundation for RR's win.

Chasing 188, Suryavanshi barely got the strike in the Powerplay as fellow opener Yashasvi Jaiswal went after the bowling. The teenager faced only three balls in the first four overs, and his first 10 balls yielded only 12 runs.

But he came into his own in the eighth over, going after CSK's premier wrist spinner, Afghan international Noor Ahmad, first pulling his long hop for six before lashing successive front foot cover drives.