IPL 2026 Match 36: Sooryavanshi smashes 36-ball century, but Kishan and Abhishek seal SRH chase

Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Rajasthan Royals by five wickets at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur in the 36th match of Indian Premier League 2026, chasing down a target of 229 with nine balls to spare. The win, secured on the night of April 25, 2026, lifted Sunrisers Hyderabad to third place on the points table and extended their winning streak to four matches, while Rajasthan Royals slipped to a third consecutive defeat despite a record-breaking century from fifteen-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Pat Cummins, returning to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad in his first competitive game since the Adelaide Ashes Test in mid-December, won his first toss of the season and chose to bowl. Sunrisers Hyderabad made two changes to their bowling unit, bringing back Cummins for Dilshan Madushanka and recalling seamer Praful Hinge in place of left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey. Rajasthan Royals replaced legspinner Ravi Bishnoi with seamer Tushar Deshpande, with both teams opting to play four seamers and no specialist spinner. Travis Head was named in the playing eleven and walked out to open the chase, while Smaran R was held back on the Impact Player bench.

How did Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s 37-ball century rewrite the Indian Premier League record book in Jaipur?

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi struck five sixes off the first six legitimate deliveries he faced and reached his fifty in fifteen balls, equalling the joint-fastest half-century of the season. He went on to score 103 off 37 balls, hitting twelve sixes and five fours at a strike rate above 278, before falling leg before to Sakib Hussain while attempting a scoop. The hundred, completed off thirty-six deliveries, is the third-fastest in the history of the Indian Premier League, behind only Chris Gayle’s 30-ball effort for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2013 and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s own 35-ball century for Rajasthan Royals against Gujarat Titans in the 2025 season. The innings made Vaibhav Sooryavanshi the first uncapped player to register multiple centuries in the league and the first to score two hundreds in under forty deliveries. At the age of fifteen years and twenty-nine days, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi also became the youngest player to reach one thousand runs in Twenty20 cricket and the fastest to that mark in terms of balls faced, getting there in 473 deliveries, a list previously led by Mitchell Owen at 533 balls. The twelve sixes are now the most by an Indian batter in a single Indian Premier League innings, surpassing the previous mark of eleven held jointly by Murali Vijay and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi himself.

Why did Rajasthan Royals end up with 228 for 6 despite the youngster’s onslaught?

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was dropped on a difficult chance by Aniket Verma off Eshan Malinga in the fifth over while attempting to clear the leg side, and the miss proved costly within deliveries as the teenager accelerated. He added 112 for the second wicket with Dhruv Jurel, who anchored the innings with a 35-ball 51. Once Vaibhav Sooryavanshi fell in the fourteenth over, the Rajasthan Royals scoring rate slowed sharply. The remaining batters and extras combined to score 125 off 83 deliveries, and the home side managed only forty-three runs in the final five overs. Donovan Ferreira contributed a brisk 33 off sixteen balls in the death overs, taking on Sakib Hussain in the eighteenth over, but Eshan Malinga restricted Shimron Hetmyer to a single run from four deliveries in the nineteenth and finished with figures of two for 38. Pat Cummins, Praful Hinge and Nitish Kumar Reddy picked up a wicket apiece. Rajasthan Royals closed at 228 for 6, a total that appeared competitive but felt subdued on a night when Punjab Kings had chased down a Twenty20-record 265 against Delhi Capitals at the Feroz Shah Kotla.

How did Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma neutralise the Sooryavanshi-led total at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium?

Jofra Archer struck with the fifth ball of the chase, removing Travis Head for six off five deliveries, with Dhruv Jurel completing a clean catch behind the stumps. Ishan Kishan walked in and took a sharp bouncer to the helmet from Jofra Archer, the ball flying over fine leg for six off the bat face, and from that point the chase shifted decisively. Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma raised a century stand off forty-four balls, both bringing up their fifties off twenty-four deliveries each. Rajasthan Royals failed to hold a series of catches in the powerplay, including a regulation chance offered by Abhishek Sharma to Ravindra Jadeja at backward point off Tushar Deshpande in the fifth over, and a more difficult opportunity that Shimron Hetmyer lost in the floodlights at deep third off Nandre Burger. Abhishek Sharma was eventually caught by Jofra Archer off the part-time offspin of Donovan Ferreira for 57 off 29 balls, including eleven boundaries and a six. Ishan Kishan was dismissed for 74 off 31, and Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy fell in successive deliveries to Brijesh Sharma in the closing overs. Sunrisers Hyderabad finished the chase at 229 for 5 in 18.3 overs, with Salil Arora and Aniket Verma at the crease. Ishan Kishan was named Player of the Match for the second time in the tournament, having led Sunrisers Hyderabad in seven matches as stand-in captain before Pat Cummins reclaimed the role.

What does the result mean for the Indian Premier League 2026 points table at the halfway stage?

With the league phase reaching the midway point, the result lifted Sunrisers Hyderabad to third in the standings on the back of a four-match winning run. Rajasthan Royals dropped to fourth after a third successive loss, with their captain Riyan Parag’s tactical handling of the bowling attack drawing scrutiny, including the use of his own legspin and Donovan Ferreira’s part-time offspin while Ravindra Jadeja’s left-arm spin was held back against the Sunrisers Hyderabad left-handed top order. The reverse fixture at Hyderabad twelve days earlier had been won by Sunrisers Hyderabad after Praful Hinge dismissed Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for a duck on debut, and the Jaipur result confirms the swing in momentum between the two playoff contenders. Pat Cummins indicated after the match that the priority for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the second half of the season is bowling consolidation and middle-overs control, while Riyan Parag and the Rajasthan Royals coaching staff face questions on catching standards and death-bowling resources before the run-in to the playoffs.

How does the Vaibhav Sooryavanshi phenomenon fit into the broader trajectory of Indian cricket?

The performance at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium continues a record-breaking arc for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi that began with his 35-ball century on Indian Premier League debut for Rajasthan Royals in the 2025 season and includes a 175 in the ICC Under-19 World Cup earlier in 2026. The fastest to four Twenty20 hundreds in twenty-six matches, ahead of Usman Khan at thirty-three, B Sai Sudharsan at seventy-two and Chris Gayle at seventy-seven, the Bihar-born left-hander has triggered a debate within Indian cricket on managing teenage talent at the highest level. The frequency of fifteen-ball half-centuries in the season, four in total with three credited to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and the fourth to Abhishek Sharma, indicates a wider scoring shift in the Indian Premier League towards extreme powerplay aggression. The selection conversation around Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for senior India formats has intensified with each performance, although the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Rajasthan Royals support staff have publicly emphasised gradual exposure rather than immediate elevation.

What are the key takeaways from the Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad 36th match of Indian Premier League 2026?

• Sunrisers Hyderabad chased down 229 against Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur with nine balls to spare, winning by five wickets and extending their streak to four consecutive victories.
• Vaibhav Sooryavanshi scored 103 off 37 balls with twelve sixes and five fours, registering the third-fastest century in Indian Premier League history and becoming the youngest player to reach one thousand runs in Twenty20 cricket at fifteen years and twenty-nine days.
• Ishan Kishan was named Player of the Match for his 74 off 31 balls, sharing a century opening stand with Abhishek Sharma, who scored 57 off 29 deliveries before falling to Donovan Ferreira.
• Pat Cummins returned to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad in his first competitive match since the Adelaide Ashes Test in mid-December and won the toss for the first time in the season.
• Rajasthan Royals dropped to fourth on the points table after a third successive defeat, while Sunrisers Hyderabad climbed to third at the halfway stage of the league phase.

Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 36th Match, Indian Premier League 2026 scorecard