Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the young Rajasthan Royals (RR) batter, received rich praise from veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, after his assault on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) helped RR win the recent IPL 2026 game on April 10 in Guwahati.

RCB was asked to bat first, and some spirited batting by Rajat Patidar (63), Virat Kohli (32), and Venkatesh Iyer (29*) took them to 201/8 in 20 overs. Jofra Archer, Ravi Bishnoi, and Brijesh Sharma took two wickets each for RR.

In response, despite losing Yashasvi Jaiswal early, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel took the attack to the RCB bowlers in a scintillating 108-run partnership. Sooryavanshi was particularly severe on the RCB pacers, which included Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood.

He slammed 78 in 26 balls with 8 fours and 7 sixes, while Jurel made 81* in 43 balls with 8 fours and 3 sixes as RR won the game in 18 overs and 6 wickets in hand.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was all praises for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and stated that he may be just 15 years of age, but he is already batting with a clarity and composure that defy his age.

"The way he is hitting shots. He is not slogging; he is hitting proper shots. For a 15-year-old, he is too mature. So yes, I think we should give him credit for the way he is batting, and he is batting really well. So, he deserves all the credit," Bhuvneshwar Kumar said at the post-match press conference on Friday.

Bhuvneshwar insisted that RCB never felt totally outplayed in spite of Sooryavanshi's assault, which featured eight fours and seven sixes.

"It's a T20 game, I mean. Yes, he is young, and he is batting very well. He is batting maturely, but we never felt that somebody was thrashing us. If a 15-year-old can bat like this, even if he is 25 or 15, I think it's part of the T20 game. Yes, we had plans, and we dropped a catch too, but that happens in cricket. So, we couldn't execute what we wanted to do, and I think it is a part of T20, so we are not worried that much," said Bhuvneshwar.

"We tried what we could do. I know that from the outside, the game looks a little slow compared to how it looks inside. Vaibhav played good shots. So, I think we felt that we couldn't do anything different,” he added.

As RCB was reduced to 94/6, RCB had to bring in Venkatesh Iyer as an impact sub instead of Suyash Sharma, putting extra pressure on RCB's bowling.

"It is difficult to use spinners in power play, and we had only one left-arm spinner, as we used an Impact instead of Suyash. So, we didn't have an off-spinner, and for a left-arm bowler to face a left-arm batter, it makes sense. We did what we could do, and he batted really well,” Bhuvneshwar said.

RCB next take on the Mumbai Indians in Mumbai on Sunday.

(PTI inputs)