Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel, right, and Ashutosh Sharma celebrate (AP Photo)
New Delhi: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was batting 43 runs off 17 balls. “We’re so used to his explosive recording that this doesn’t seem strange,” a nearby voice joked.
“Come to think of it, that’s true.So when he came to the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday night to face Delhi Capitals, taking his tally of sixes in IPL 2026 to 43, including three on the night, it didn’t seem out of place. He has now scored the most sixes by an Indian batsman in a single IPL season, surpassing Abhishek Sharma’s tally of 42 in 2024.
However, his overall tally of 440 points (pre-match), placed him outside the top ten in the Orange Cap race.
After 46 runs – having faced 21 balls – with three sixes and five boundaries, he jumped to sixth on the list. His stay was stopped at mid-on by Madhav Tiwari.The 22-year-old Delhi Capitals player made his mark in the win over Punjab Kings on May 11. With his 2/40 and his valuable tally of 18 unbeaten innings, the Madhya Pradesh youngster has found a place for the second match in a row.He again proved decisive with figures of 2/27 although Lungi Ngidi (2/24) was more economical and Mitchell Starc (4/40) more lethal. Starc scored three times in just over a minute – and had a hat-trick chance – with Ryan Parag, Donovan Ferreira and Ravi Singh wicket-taking.
However, the big impact can be said to have been Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s share of not only slamming the brakes on the automotive machine, but also eliminating a potentially huge total in the future.Despite the wicket, this seems a real possibility. RR were 160/2 after 14 overs with Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag in a 72-run partnership. It was Skipper Parag who did the bulk of the scoring with a 26-ball 51 to show for himself.In the odd over, Tiwari added the wicket of Shubham Dubey as DC’s bowlers performed in a way they have not done at home so far in the season. They brought a lot of variations to the fore: Nigid with a mix of slower runs and deliveries that went up to the batsmen.In the end, RR were bowled out on 193/8 – well short of their total of 220+ at one stage – with the last six overs resulting in just 33 runs at a cost of six wickets.“Going into this IPL season, I thought I would take four-five different formats with me and support them throughout the season.
“I have been working on it and I hope the results will help in my favour,” Tiwari said during the mid-half interaction.“I think there was a little bit of help from the wicket. It was attractive, so I thought I could use more of it. I was just looking to put myself in a high-pressure situation in the nets itself. So bowling to (David) Miller and bowling to Ashutosh (Sharma) and KL (Rahul) helped me.” “I was just trying to figure out how I would face these batsmen, which will help me in this tournament,” he added.In reply, Delhi Capitals looked to be heading towards the 194-run target, just as Rajasthan Royals started strongly. Abhishek Porel and KL Rahul put together 105 runs on the scoreboard in less than 10 overs and the target looked well in sight.But, like so many of RR’s efforts, DC also lost the plot one wicket after another. Abhishek Porel (51), Kal Rahul (56) and Axar Patel (34) went into double figures but the chase became tense. Sahil Parakh (9), Tristan Stubbs (4) and David Miller (9) all came and perished without playing much of a role.Similar to DC’s trio of seamers who dragged the game back, that was it
Jofra Archer
That kept them fishing. He kept 2/35 RR alive in the competition with the reduction of wickets and the flow of runs.Ryan Parag’s decision to hand the ball to Donovan Ferreira was a huge turning point. In the 18th, Ferreira entered his first game of the night and was beaten for 16 pitches to relieve any pressure.12 runs in the penultimate over and 10 from two balls in the last over saw DC cross the line in the final over and break their home losing streak.In the grand scheme of things, RR are still alive in the playoff race but on a night they were cruising with the bat and DC needed 35 runs off 3 overs, it’s a missed opportunity.