JAIPUR, India (AP) 鈥� Rajasthan Royals teenage star Vaibhav Sooryavanshi鈥檚 hit an entertaining knock of 93 runs with 10 sixes against Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday to keep his team in contention for the final Indian Premier League playoff spot.
The 15-year-old Sooryavanshi also smashed seven fours in his boundary-loaded 38-ball innings as Rajasthan cruised to 225-3 in 19.1 overs for seven-wicket win.
Mitchell Marsh (96) had earlier missed out on a hundred but the Australian opener鈥檚 century first-wicket stand with his countryman Josh Inglis (60) had carried Lucknow to 220-5 after Rajasthan鈥檚 stand-in captain Yashasvi Jaiswal won the toss and elected to field.
Rajasthan overtook Punjab Kings at No. 4 on the points table behind three teams that have already qualified for the playoffs: Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
鈥淚 always knew I could hit anytime and didn鈥檛 want to rush at all,鈥� Sooryavanshi said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 read papers and all, I just think this is the start and if I have a long career, then a lot of things will be said. I just want to focus on my game.鈥�
Rajasthan could seal the final playoff spot if they beat Mumbai Indians in their last league game.
鈥淓veryone put the hard yards and worked really well,鈥� Jaiswal said after leading his side to victory in the absence of injured regular captain Riyan Parag. 鈥淭he way Vaibhav batted, (he) absolutely killed the game 鈥� we knew it was going to be a big score on this pitch.”
Unlike his aggressive style of batting from the onset, Sooryavanshi took his time before charging against the pace. He scored only five runs off the first 10 balls he faced, but the youngster showed extravagant power-hitting to score 88 off the next 28 balls.
Fast bowler Akash Singh (1-54) conceded four boundaries against Jaiswal (43) in his 23-run first over as Sooryavanshi took the back seat and let the stand-in captain score bulk of the runs in the power play.
Singh dismissed Jaiswal in his second over, but then Sooryavanshi upped the ante by smashing two sixes and three fours in Singh’s ninth over of the innings.
Sooryavanshi raised the tally of his sixes to 53 this season and needs seven more big hits to break Chris Gayle鈥檚 14-year-old IPL record of 59 sixes. Sooryavanshi could have been run-out in the 90s when Mohsin Khan couldn’t hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end from close range before the fast bowler had the youngster caught at long-on in the 14th over.
Dhruv Jurel made sure Rajasthan scored at a rapid pace and remained unbeaten on 53 off 38 balls, achieving the target with five balls to spare.
Earlier, Marsh and Inglis racked up 83-0 in the power play as Rajasthan with the likes of Jofra Archer in their ranks went wicketless for the fourth successive game in the first six overs.
Wrist-spinner Yash Raj Punja stifled Lucknow in the middle overs with 2-35 as he broke the 109-run opening stand in the ninth over when he clean bowled Inglis and then also removed dangerous Nicholas Pooran for 16.
Marsh, who raised his half-century off 25 balls, scored a further 43 off the next 32 balls before Archer鈥檚 last over saw Lucknow losing three wickets for only five runs. Marsh and captain Rishabh Pant (35) got run-out before Archer hit the base of Ayush Badoni鈥檚 stumps of the final ball.
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