Vaibhav Sooryavanshi rattled off another extraordinary start in IPL 2026. This time he raised a 16-ball half-century in his IPL career’s first playoff match as Rajasthan Royals (RR) met Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Eliminator in Mullanpur on Wednesday.
In what is only his second IPL season, Sooryavanshi broke the legendary Chris Gayle’s record for the most sixes in a single IPL edition that he had set back in 2012.
It rained sixes in New Chandigarh after SRH skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bowl first. The RR openers, young Yashasvi Jaiswal and an even younger Sooryavanshi, smoked 80 runs in the powerplay, with the former largely being a spectator to the thrilling show produced by the 15-year-old prodigy.
Sooryavanshi played 20 balls in the powerplay and blasted 60 runs with the help of 8 sixes and 2 fours; that is, 56 of his 60 runs were made in boundaries!
He began the onslaught on the last ball of the first over, tonking Cummins down the ground, a feat he would repeat multiple times: Sooryavanshi hammered four sixes against Cummins in the pacer’s two powerplay overs.
In the second over, Eshan Malinga was pulled over backward square leg. In the fourth over of the powerplay, bowled by Sakib Hussain, Vaibhav cracked three sixes through terrific shot making: inside out over cover, over deep extra cover, and over deep square leg.
Between these, he sent Cummins for three consecutive maximums in the third over of the innings: over long on, over third man with a slap cut, and down the ground over the pacer.
SRH vs RR: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi rewrites history books, breaks Chris Gayle’s most sixes in an IPL record
Sooryavanshi entered the Eliminator with 53 sixes to his name. He hit 8 sixes in the powerplay and his sixes tally continued to climb further.
With his sixth maximum of the night, Sooryavanshi equaled Gayle’s record of 59 sixes from 2012, and with his seventh biggie, Sooryavanshi became the holder of the record for the most sixes in a single IPL season.
Top 5 batsmen with the most sixes in an IPL season:
- 63* – Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (2026)
- 59 – Chris Gayle (2012)
- 52 – Andre Russell (2019)
- 51 – Chris Gayle (2013)
- 45 – Jos Buttler (2022)
[Updated until 27 May 2026]
With his 16-ball fifty, Sooryavanshi also equalled Suresh Raina’s feat of the fastest half-century in IPL playoffs/knockouts. In the 2014 Qualifier 2 against Punjab, Raina had set this record during his famous 87 (25) innings.
Fastest half-centuries in IPL knockouts/playoffs (by balls)
- 16 – Suresh Raina vs PBKS, Wankhede, 2014
- 16 – Vaibhav Sooryavanshi vs SRH, Mullanpur, 2026
- 17 – Adam Gilchrist vs DC, Centurion, 2009
- 20 – MS Dhoni vs MI, Bengaluru, 2012
And there are more records the younger RR opener whipped through. He has now registered five fifties inside the powerplay in IPL, one more than Travis Head and one fewer than the record holder, David Warner.
Further, Sooryavanshi’s eight sixes in the powerplay tonight against SRH is the most a batsman has hit in the first six overs in an IPL innings.
Sooryavanshi’s innings ended at 97 (29) as he missed Gayle’s record of the fastest IPL century in 30 balls. The southpaw plundered a whopping 12 sixes and 5 fours in his knock of 97 runs. At the end of his innings, he had leaped on the runs chart this season, now the leading run scorer with 680 runs scored at a strike rate of 243. Simply ridiculous.
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