Batting from the other end, Yashasvi Jaiswal had a ringside view of a piece of history in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday.
Jaiswal witnessed one of the most incredible batting performances as 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryanshi hammered the fastest T20 century by an Indian to help Rajasthan Royals defeat Gujarat Titans by eight wickets in Match 47 of IPL 2025 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
At 14 years and 32 days, Suryavanshi became the youngest player to score a century in the IPL.
Incredible innings, one of the best I have seen. Hope he will do it for us for a long time. I was telling him to just keep going, incredible today. He just played amazing shots, practices well, works hard in the nets. He has the game and temperament, wish him all the luck.
Suryavanshi blasted a century in 35 balls, which is the fastest in T20 by an Indian, improving the record held by Yusuf Pathan, who reached the three-figure mark in 37 balls. Suryavanshi blasted seven fours and a record 11 sixes, the most number of maximums in an IPL match, in a pure display of power-hitting as he went after the bowlers with gusto.
Jaiswal scored 70 not out and along with Suryavanshi shared a 166-run partnership for the opening wicket, the highest for Rajasthan Royals for any wicket, breaking the record of 155 between Devdutt Padikkal and Jos Buttler. Their partnership laid the foundation as Rajasthan Royals reached 212/2 in 15.5 overs chasing the 209/4 scored by Gujarat Titans riding on Shubman Gill's 84 off 50 balls (5x4, 4x6) and an unbeaten 50 by Jos Buttler off 26 balls (3x4, 4x6).
The brilliant knocks by Suryavanshi and Jaiswal helped RR win the match with 25 balls remaining, moving to eighth position with their third win after four defeats and improving their net run rate. It also kept their hopes alive in the tournament.
We were talking that somebody needs to stay and finish the game after the last three games, I was there luckily today and tried my best. Our coach says one game at a time and we'll give 100% each game.
Suryavanshi was happy about scoring his first century in only his third IPL innings and gaining the Player of the Match Award. "It feels really good. It was my first century in the IPL in my third innings. What I've been practicing for the last three to four months, the result is showing. I don't see the ground so much, just focus on the ball.
He also said batting with Jaiswal gave him confidence. "Batting with him gives me confidence because he keeps very positive and gives me advice, so it becomes easy to bat with him. It is like a dream, to score a century in the IPL. No, no fear," said Suryavanshi, who said he did not think that bowlers would target him after this knock and would rather just focus on playing cricket.
Gujarat Titans skipper Shubman Gill said they lost the match in the powerplay and gave credit to Jaiswal and Suryavanshi for the way they batted. Jaiswal and Suryavanshi scored 87 runs in the six overs of power-play.
I think they took the game away from us in the power-play, credit to them for that. We could have done a couple of things better, but it's easy to say those things when sitting out, some chances came out the way and we didn't take them.
Brief Scores: Gujarat Titans 209/4 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 84, Jos Buttler 50 not out; Maheesh Theekshana 2-35, Sandeep Sharma 1-33) lost to Rajasthan Royals 212/2 in 15.5 overs (Vaibhav Suryavanshi 101, Yashasvi Jaiswal 70 not out; Rashid Khan 1-24, Prasidh Krishna 1-47) by eight-wickets.
