Meat of the bat over cake for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s 15th birthday

GUWAHATI: When you turned 15, how did you celebrate your birthday?

When Vaibhav Sooryavanshi turned a year older on Mar 27, he didn’t follow the midnight cake ritual. Slightly unusual for adolescents of his age. Instead, the hard-hitting teenage prodigy helped himself to a 15-ball half century in Rajasthan Royals’ season opener against Chennai Super Kings five days later.

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“I didn’t really do anything,” Sooryavanshi revealed to the broadcasters post-game, “There was supposed to be a cake cutting, but I went to sleep early to avoid the cake-smearing.”





He may have escaped the cakesmearing but in tearing into the CSK attack Monday, Sooryavanshi becomes the third joint fastest 50 in the IPL. It got everyone watching, and those hearing, involved and invested in the newly-turned 15-year-old’s exploits. Calls came to not wait upon a rare talent as his and have the Samastipur boy fast-tracked into the Indian team. He already had a breakaway season last year capped by the second fastest IPL century.

With only 127 runs to defend, CSK could only watch the boy wonder reducing the game to a onesided affair in virtually no time as his blitzkrieg helped Royals to 70 without loss after powerplay.

“I do think about defence, but today our plan was to control the game in the powerplay because in a small chase, if the bowling team does well (in the initial overs), the game can tilt their way, but our powerplay went really well. Initially the wicket felt a bit sticky, but as the ball got older it started coming onto the bat nicely ,” Sooryavanshi explained about his aggressive approach.

Captain Riyan Parag was also in awe of the young -ster’s hitting prowess. “What I tell him is, ‘You’re going to play 14 games and regardless of what goes on in the game, it shouldn’t bother you. What goes around in the media shouldn’t bother you. You just go out there’. He loves to bat. I’ve made sure, I’ve told the coaches, that he gets as much batting as he wants. Then he goes and does something like that,” Riyan said after the match.

“Sitting in the dugout till the fourth over, Dhruv (Jurel) and I were simply in awe. We were like, ‘What is happening?’ ‘How is he doing this?’ The pitch looked totally different from the first innings. But then I’m really happy to have him in my team,” Riyan gushed.

On whether he was tutored by the coaches that the opposition bowlers would attack him, Sooryavanshi grinned, “The coaches did not specifically say that bowlers would attack me. Everyone else was already saying that, but they just told me that they back me and I should stick to my natural game and play according to the situation.”

Crediting Yashasvi Jaiswal for the guidance in between balls and overs, he added, “Jaiswal keeps communicating with me after every ball. He tells me when to take singles, keeps giving me the strike, and encourages me to keep playing my shots if the ball is coming nicely onto the bat.”

And his natural game was such that Jaiswal, owner of IPL’s fastest-ever fifty, off 13 balls, was happy to give his younger partner the strike and be content with an unbeaten 36-ball 38.
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