Rajasthan Royals' (RR) 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continued his sensational run in the IPL 2026 by tearing into the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) bowling attack in Guwahati on Friday (April 10).

The southpaw slammed 78 off 26 balls to help his team overhaul the stiff target of 202 with six wickets and 12 deliveries to spare. He brought up his half-century in just 15 balls for the second time this season.

During his whirlwind knock, studded with 8 fours and 7 sixes, Sooryavanshi added 108 runs for the second wicket with Dhruv Jurel, who stayed unbeaten on 81 off 43 balls to take RR over the finishing line.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Jurel heaped praise on Sooryavanshi, admitting that the game was not as easy as the teenager was making it look.

“When I bat at number three, he makes my batting look easy. When you go in, and Vaibhav is smashing every ball, you tend to think nothing is happening on the wicket. Cricket is not as easy as he’s playing,” Jurel said.

“We were 65-70 runs in five overs, and that sixth over, Abhinandan (Singh) bowled to me. I was just telling myself to cash in. It is good to see from the other end the way he bats, it is phenomenal,” he added.

Jurel noted that after Sooryavanshi's dismissal, the required run rate was comfortable at 6.5-7 per over, which was easy to achieve.

“When Sooryavanshi got out, he had already made the match very easy. Around six-and-a-half or seven runs per over were required. My job was just to get it done. I was speaking to Riyan (Parag) and (Ravindra) Jadeja – let’s just run hard, take twos and threes. One odd ball will come, we’ll get a boundary, and we are good to go. We just tried to finish the match in the 18th or 19th over, and that’s exactly what we did,” he stated.

While Jurel was heavily utilized as a lower-order finisher in IPL 2025, the RR management promoted him to No. 3 for the 2026 season following the high-profile trade of Sanju Samson to CSK.

However, the wicketkeeper-batter is not fussed by the number he bats in the line-up. “To be honest, at the end of the day, you just need to win the match irrespective of what number you are batting. I was batting at 6 or 5 last year. This time I was batting at number three. The management showed some faith in me. For me, that batting number is just a number. My character has always been that I don’t need a particular number. Wherever the team needs me, I’m there,” Jurel remarked.