Fastest to 50 sixes, 500 runs: Sooryavanshi shatters more IPL records in RR-LSG match

Synopsis: Sooryavanshi’s backlift and Jurel’s finish light up Jaipur as RR stay alive; LSG’s 220 never enough despite Marsh’s 96 and Inglis’s 60, Punja’s googly the turning pointVaibhav Sooryavanshi made 93 off 38 balls and Dhruv Jurel finished what he started, as Rajasthan Royals beat Lucknow Super Giants by seven wickets in Jaipur on Tuesday, moving to fourth on the points table and keeping their qualification hopes alive in a season that had threatened to end weeks ago.Sooryavanshi was 13 when Zubin Bharucha first asked him whose fan he was. The answer came without hesitation – Brian Lara. Not MS Dhoni, not Virat Kohli. A boy in Bihar, growing up after Lara’s career had ended, had settled on the left-hander from Trinidad as his template. Bharucha noticed the walking gait first, then the way the bat was held. By the time the boy lifted his bat to play his first ball, Bharucha was smiling. The backlift – past vertical, wrists snapping it back even further, almost 180 degrees – had arrived fully formed. On Tuesday, Mohsin Khan got the first over. Sooryavanshi left three, defended one, dabbed a single. Then Mayank Yadav arrived at 148kph, short and outside off. Sooryavanshi leaned back, lofted, and held his pose as the ball cleared deep extra-cover. That pose – bat finishing high, body still, ball already gone – is what happens when the sequencing arrives. Bharucha has said that when it all comes together, the ball doesn’t need to be persuaded. It simply goes. Vaibhav Suryavanshi of Rajasthan Royals play a shot during Match 64 of the TATA Indian Premier League 2026. (Photo by Arjun Singh / CREIMAS for IPL)By the eighth over, it had gone many times. Akash Singh conceded 26 in a single over – a pull over deep midwicket, a slash through third man, a heave through mid-wicket. Rishabh Pant walked across mid-over to speak to his bowler. The next ball went for four anyway. Yashasvi Jaiswal fell for 43 at the other end, caught at the boundary, and barely interrupted the evening. Sooryavanshi’s fifty came in the ninth over, a reverse-sweep off Digvesh Rathi’s googly. Sooryavanshi raised his fingers – an inverted V with one across it. Something private, unexplained. Four more sixes followed across overs 10 and 11. Over 12, Digvesh dragged short and wide, it was flat-batted before the fielders moved. With Royals needing 41 off 38 at the start of the 14th over, the chase was done. Mohsin came back. Slower ball, outside off. Sooryavanshi cleared his front leg for the hoick – but the slowness did exactly what it was meant to do. Hit high on the bat, lobbed to long-on. Abdul Samad held it.Story continues below this ad Ninety-three off 38. Ten sixes, seven fours. He is fifteen, batting at a strike rate no one in IPL history has matched across a full season, with 53 sixes – only Gayle in 2012 has hit more in a single edition. Inglis, Marsh and the hands LSG batted first. Josh Inglis knew where to look – at his own hands. During his stint with Punjab Kings under Ricky Ponting, he shifted his stance so his hands sat further from his body, giving him room to swing through the line of the ball. “Now I feel like my hands are out here a bit more,” he said once. Jofra Archer, Royals’ sharpest Powerplay weapon all season, found out first. Mitchell Marsh charged and slapped him over mid-off for six in the opening over. Inglis followed – a 99-metre heave over deep backward square leg off Sushant Mishra’s second ball. LSG were 83/0 at the end of the Powerplay. Inglis reached 50 off 22 balls. Marsh followed off 33. The stand was 105 when Yashraj Punja arrived. The googly In the narrow corridor of the Punja home, where the house rule permitted only spin, the younger one’s leg-breaks kept coming out as wrong ‘uns. Then came the height – 6 foot 5 – and a chance encounter at a Bengaluru academy where Bharucha happened to be watching nets.Story continues below this ad Punja was the only Royals bowler who made the batsmen think. In the ninth over, he tossed one

Sooryavanshi could break the record for most sixes by an Indian in IPL season during the DC vs RR match. (CREIMAS)Most sixes in an IPL season: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has taken the IPL 2026 stage by a phenomenal storm, so much so that the 15-year-old leads the six-hitting charts in just his second season at the top of the order for Rajasthan Royals. None of the international quality bowlers has been spared from the fierce Sooryavanshi bat-swing. The dashing southpaw now stands a chance of rewriting the record books by a fair stretch after having already smashed multiple T20 world records this season. Sooryavanshi had emerged as the fastest batter ever to hit 100 T20 sixes, getting to the feat in only 515 deliveries, almost 300 balls faster than the previous record holder. In only 11 innings, he has walloped 40 sixes this edition, making up over 50 percent of his 440 runs this season in maximums. Sooryavanshi had also broken the Indian record held by Murali Vijay for most sixes in an innings, having smashed 12 of them during his 36-ball hundred against SunRisers Hyderabad. The Samastipur-born prodigy can now target the Indian record for most sixes hit in an IPL season, currently held by Abhishek Sharma who struck 42 maximums in the 2024 edition. Chris Gayle, the highest six-hitter in the history of the IPL, remains on top of the charts even as newer power-hitters have emerged on the scene. Gayle remains the only batter to smash 50 sixes in a season twice, achieving the feat with RCB in successive years in 2012 and 2013. West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell is the only other batter to slam 50 sixes in a year, achieving it with Kolkata Knight Riders in 2019.Story continues below this ad Most sixes by a batter in an IPL season Player Inns Runs HS SR 6s Season Chris Gayle (RCB) 14 733 128* 160.74 59 2012 Andre Russell (KKR) 13 510 80* 204.81 52 2019 Chris Gayle (RCB) 16 708 175* 156.29 51 2013 JC Buttler (RR) 17 863 116 149.05 45 2022 Chris Gayle (RCB) 12 608 107 183.13 44 2011 Abhishek Sharma (SRH) 16 484 75* 204.21 42 2024 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (RR) 11 440 103 236.55 40 2026 Nicholas Pooran (LSG) 14 524 87* 196.25 40 2025 Most sixes in IPL 2026 (as of April 29) 40* (11 innings) – Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (RR) 37 (10 innings) – Ryan Rickelton (MI) 37 (12 innings) – Abhishek Sharma (SRH) 32 (11 innings) – Priyansh Arya (PBKS) 31 (11 innings) – Rajat Patidar (RCB) 31 (12 innings) – Mitchell Marsh (LSG)