Jaipur, Apr 29: Fourteen-year-old boy wonder Vaibhav Suryavanshi walked into the collective consciousness of cricket fans by becoming the youngest ever to score a hundred in an IPL match where result became inconsequential in the wake of a batting carnage for the ages.
For the record, Royals kept their play-off qualification hopes alive with a walk-in-the-park eight-wicket victory over Gujarat Titans in a chase of 210 made easy by a chubby-cheeked prodigy from Bihar’s Samastipur, who was born three years after the cash-rich league started.
His 35-ball century is now the second fastest in IPL and fastest ever for any Indian after Chris Gayle’s 30-ball knock for RCB.
When other 14-year-olds a cross the country are busy completing middle-school assignments and being admonished by quietly sneaking in for a PlayStation session, the left-handed Suryavanshi, simply stood and delivered against Indian bowlers Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Siraj with a collective experience of 141 Tests between them.
Ishant had made his Test debut back in 2006 when Suryavanshi wasn’t even an idea but the “Gen Alpha” kid (all those born between 2010-2024) made a mockery of everything thrown at him.
There were 11 sixes and seven fours in his 38-ball-101 that even made a regal Yashasvi Jaiswal (70 not out, 40 balls, 9x4s, 2x6s) look like a mere bystander.
Even with baby fat refusing to leave the contours of his cheeks, the stable core and holding his shape are things that stand out.
The basics built through those hours of toil in Patna, playing 600 balls a day from the age of 10 did show its results. The days of facing 16-17 year old net bowlers for whom his father Sanjiv Suryavanshi, would pack 10 extra tiffin boxes haven’t gone waste.
The decision of the Suryavanshi family to put all their eggs in one basket and have no Plan B by selling farm land to fuel their son’s cricketing ambitions will certainly become a part of cricketing folklores that will be spoken in years to come.
The bat speed was astonishing and the manner in which he picked up Siraj over long-on and belted Ishant into the square leg stand was there to be seen.
Even Test spinner Washington Sundar scurried for cover and Karim Janat, the Afghan international was hit for 30 runs in an over including a disdainful flick. By the time he was yorked by Prasidh Krishna, none of the GT players had any energy left to celebrate.
Ravi Shastri said on air that RR assistant coach Sairaj Bahutule had told him about the little one’s fondness for jalebis and possibly head coach Rahul Dravid won’t mind a bit of indulgence.
When Shubman Gill scored 50-ball-84 and Jos Buttler smashed 26-ball-50 not out earlier, it seemed like a mayhem but once Suryavanshi started to send the balls into the orbit, no one knew that how he could be stopped.
“His hitting was tremendous,” GT skipper Gill said.
“Incredible, one of the best innings that I have seen. I just told him to keep going,” was all Jaiswal, the megastar in-waiting could say.
Indian cricket is replete with stories about how some incredible talents were lost as they couldn’t handle limelight. Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Maninder Singh, Sadanand Viswanath, Vinod Kambli and Prithvi Shaw in recent times have all failed to realise their potential.
Indian cricket has got an uncut diamond and it is now establishment’s duty to preserve and help him shine.
Suryavanshi’s journey has just begun. (PTI)
