Guwahati (Assam) [India], March 30 : Following Rajasthan Royals (RR)'s win over five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) opener, batter Vaibhav Suryavanshi spoke on his equation with opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal and his birthday celebrations after recently turning 15.
It was another Suryavanshi special, the second-fastest fifty by an RR batter in IPL history, which helped RR to a one-sided win over CSK by eight wickets in Guwahati on Monday. While chasing 128 runs, it was his 15-ball half-century and quickfire 75 run stand with Jaiswal which totally put the match beyond CSK's reach. The 15-year-old continues to dominate, be it the IPL, the U19 cricket, the state-level cricket for Bihar and does not look to stop anytime soon.
Suryavanshi, who turned 15 on March 27, said during the post-match presentation that he did not do anything outside for his birthday and went to sleep early to get cake smeared on his face.
"I did not really do anything outside - there was supposed to be a cake cutting, but I went to sleep early to avoid the cake-smearing (on how he celebrated his birthday)," said Suryavanshi.
Suryavanshi said that the plan was to do well in the powerplay, and as the ball got older, it started coming better on the bat.
Explaining his aggressive intent and equation with opening partner Jaiswal, Suryavanshi said, "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 that I should stick to my natural game and play according to the situation. My opening partner (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."
'Player of the Match', pacer Nandre Burger, who took 2/26 in his four overs, spoke on the menacing delivery that seamed away after pitching to clean up former teammate Sanju Samson for just six runs.
"I cannot really say I meant to bowl that exact delivery to Sanju Samson, it just happened, you can call it natural variation - but overall the idea was to bowl tight lines and make batters hit into the areas we wanted, so I am glad it worked in my favour today," he added.
Burger, who was previously a part of the RR set-up in 2024 when Samson was around as a skipper, said that there are "a few new faces and changes in coach and captain" in the team, but the "energy is good, everyone is smiling".
Skipper Riyan Parag said that he got "lucky" with the toss and knew that the moisture on the pitch was going to play a part in troubling batters.
"Everyone executed their plans. A lot of prep has gone into it. The goal this year to win the trophy. We want to be a team that wants to play smart cricket. What I tell him (Vaibhav) is he is going to play 14 games. He goes and does something like that. Really happy to have him in my team. Dhruv (Jurel) comes in at three, Hettie (Shimron Hetmyer) at five. Hopefully we win with this batting line-up," he signed off.
RR opted to bowl first, and Archer (2/19), Burger (2/26) and Jadeja (2/18) made CSK toil hard for every run as they sunk to 57/6 at one point. Knocks from Jamie Overton (43 in 36 balls, with two fours and two sixes), Kartik Sharma (18), Sarfaraz Khan (17) helped CSK reach 127 in 19.4 overs before they ran out of batters. Suryavanshi (52 in 17 balls, with four boundaries and five sixes) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (38* in 36 balls, with three fours and a six) set up a platform for an easy win with a quickfire 75-run stand.