15-year-old prodigy smashes 97 off 29 balls to eliminate Pat Cummins’ Sunrisers Hyderabad from IPL

Pat Cummins was smashed by 15-year-old Indian prodigy Vaibhav Suryavanshi as Rajasthan Royals eliminated Sunrisers Hyderabad from the Indian Premier League final.

Suryavanshi, who batted first, hit 97 off just 29 balls with 12 sixes. 31 of their runs came from Cummins, who was left with ugly figures of 0-64 from four overs.

Young prodigy Vaibhav Suryavanshi celebrates his 50th birthday in the IPL match against Sunrisers.AP Photo

Cummins came into the game with a plan to keep Suryavanshi quiet against yorkers, but after the left-hander guided the first pair, Cummins could not continue to block the ball and the sixes started flowing.

In all, Suryavanshi hit four of the 12 sixes he bowled off Cummins’ bowling, leaving the Sunrisers’ skipper a bit dazed post-play. Earlier in the tournament, Cummins had showered praise on Suryavanshi, calling him his “new favorite player”.

After the game, Cummins said: “Yeah, he played pretty well, don’t think you have too many options.”

“Obviously, it’s a really good pitch, but the margins are so small you know. You miss your yorker a little bit, he doesn’t tend to miss them either. So yeah, fair play.”

The Kumar Sangakkara-coached Rajasthan Royals seem to have struck the right balance in managing Suryavanshi, giving him plenty of space to practice and not filling his head with too many conflicting ideas.

“That’s the problem, we don’t have any conversations,” captain Riyan Parag said in the presentation. “Yeah, leave him alone, let him go and have fun. Like I said before, he loves to bat, so we give him a lot of batting practice in the nets and stuff like that, and then he goes out and does his thing.”

Cummins will now head home for rest and pre-season work ahead of a demanding Test calendar over the next 12 months, starting with two Tests against Bangladesh in Northern Australia in August.

With his overnight 12 balls, Suryavanshi surpassed Chris Gayle’s 14-year-old record of hitting the most sixes in a single IPL tournament with 65 against Gayle’s 59. While Suryavanshi did this in just 266 balls, Gayle bowled 456 balls.

“I haven’t seen him do a lot of interviews before or after games unless he’s winning an award,” Aaron Finch said earlier in the tournament.

“So I haven’t seen him exposed too much in that regard and that’s a big sign for the Royals as they’ve managed him really well and treated him almost like a child to a point. But the excitement around him is real, he’s a really good player.”

Sunrisers were known for high scores under Cummins’ captaincy, but their chase for a distant 244 was ruined by England’s Jofra Archer.

Bowling at high pace, Archer cleanly bowled Cummins’ Test reliever Travis Head to move towards figures of 3-58 – not much cheaper than Cummins but much more effective.