Images from the IPL 2025 match between Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, on Monday.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 14, blazed his way into the record book as he became the youngest ever centurion in the IPL to propel Rajasthan Royals to an emphatic eight-wicket victory against Gujarat Titans in Jaipur on Monday.
Suryavanshi hit 101 off 38 balls with as many as 11 sixes and seven fours to smash the second fastest century in the history of IPL. At 14 years and 32 days, the left-hander is the youngest ever in the history of the tournament to complete a century in the IPL.
He is the youngest ever to hit a century in T20 cricket, beating the previous record held by Vijay Zol, who was 18 when he hit a century for Maharashtra against Mumbai in a domestic T20 match in 2013.
Courtesy of Suryavanshi's stunning century, Royals raced to 212/2 from 15.5 overs to register an emphatic eight-wicket victory with 25 balls to spare.
He slammed 101 from 38 balls before he was bowled by Prasidh Krishna in the 12th over. He put on 166 runs for the opening wicket with Yashasvi Jaiswal from 71 balls -- the highest partnership for any wicket for Royals in the IPL.
Yashasvi Jaiswal scored an unbeaten 40-ball 70 not out in the chase, while captain Riyan Parag finished off the game in style as he slammed 32 not out from 15 balls.
14-year-old boy wonder 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 IPL started in 2008.
His 35-ball century is now the second fastest in IPL after Chris Gayle's 30-ball knock for RCB and the fastest ever in the league by an Indian.
The left-handed Suryavanshi took apart the GT bowling attack comprising of experienced Indian bowlers in Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Siraj with a collective experience of 141 Tests between them.
There were 11 sixes and seven fours in his 38-ball-101 that even made a regal Yashasvi Jaiswal, who stroked 70 not out from 40 balls, with nine fours and two sixes, look like a mere bystander.
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 in a forgettable IPL debut. By the time he was yorked by Prasidh Krishna, none of the GT players had any energy left to celebrate.
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.
Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan smashed half-centuries to power Gujarat Titans to a huge 209/4 against Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2025 match in Jaipur on Monday.
Skipper Gill was epitome of class in his 50-ball-84 -- his fourth half-century of the season, hitting five fours and four sixes. He set the tone in the Powerplay, adding 93 for the opening stand with an in-form Sai Sudharsan (39 off 30 balls).
Jos Buttler (50 not out off 26 balls) made a mincemeat of Royals' ordinary bowling attack in the middle and death overs, smashing four sixes apart from three boundaries.
Buttler executed reverse pulls and ramps at will while using the pace of deliveries to punish his former team Rajasthan Royals.
Gill displayed the cricketing smarts by picking the shorter boundary on the leg-side and the RR bowlers were also guilty of drifting towards his pads.
There were pick-up pulls -- one over square leg and one over wide of mid-on -- but the flicked maximum off Yudhvir Singh stood out.
There was also a perfect off-drive and his opening partner Sudharsan was more than happy to give his skipper bulk of the strike in the Powerplay.
Once Sudharsan was dismissed, the dangerous Buttler piled up further misery with a 24-run over off Wanindu Hasaranga, which included three sixes and a boundary.
After that 15th over, Riyan Parag, who has struggled as RR's stand-in captain, was clueless as to whom he should look up to for getting breakthroughs to halt Titans' assault. Jofra Archer (1/49) has been good in patches but the main issue has been the two Sri Lankan spinners Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekhsana, who have not delivered on expected lines.
Hasarangam, though, has been better, but Theekshana bowled too many loose balls for his comfort. On the night, the duo gave away 74 runs collectively in eight overs and never looked like troubling the GT batting line-up.
Gill looked set for his fifth IPL hundred but holed out in the deep off Theekshana, but Buttler, in company of Washington Sundar and Rahul Tewatia, took GT past the 200-run mark.
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