Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Becomes 1st To Mega Milestone In IPL 2026, Gets Compared With MS Dhoni

That Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is an exceptional power-hitter is known to all. But this IPL 2026 season, he has made consistency his hallmark. His scores so far in IPL 2026 are 52, 31, 39, 78, 0, 46, 8, 103 and 43. He currently sits atop the run-getters' list with a tally of 400 runs in nine innings at an average of 44.44 and a strike rate of 238.09. He is the first player in IPL 2026 to reach the 400-run mark. He has one ton and two fifties so far. On Tuesday, Sooryavanshi slammed a 16-ball 43 for Rajasthan Royals against Punjab Kings.

Ahead of the match, former India players Murali Kartik and Mohit Sharma discussed the aura of Sooryavanshi.

"There are two such players... before this, there was one player, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for whom, no matter which of the ten franchises or which of the ten grounds you go to, you will see one name, the same aura, the same love for him everywhere," Sharma, who played with Dhoni for India and CSK, said on Cricbuzz.

"And now, the second person I've seen like this is one who, across all ten franchises, whichever ground you walk into, the commentators standing there, the cameramen, the players from the opposition side-they all try to have a conversation with him. Because the love he gets from every side, from all directions, is so immense. I have seen only two such players."

Talking about the match, Donovan Ferreira's audacious strokeplay handed Punjab Kings the bitter pill of defeat for the first time in this edition of the IPL as Rajasthan Royals cantered home by six wickets in a high-octane chase here on Tuesday. Chasing a target of 223, Rajasthan Royals needed 71 off the last six overs when Ferreira smashed his way to an unbeaten 52 off 26 balls in the company of an unheralded Shubham Dubey (31 not out off 12 balls) to clinch the victory with four balls to spare.

Ferreira was brilliant in picking his areas, as the PBKS troika of Arshdeep Singh (1/68 in 4 overs), Lockie Ferguson (0/57 in 4 overs) and Marco Jansen (0/41 in 3.2 overs) would like to forget this day in a hurry.

Between Ferreira and Dubey, they hit nine fours and five sixes as they undid all the good work done by Yuzvendra Chahal (3/36 in 4 overs). The manner in which Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (43 off 16 balls) started with a deluge of five sixes, including a couple of flicked maximums off Arshdeep Singh and Lockie Ferguson, it seemed RR would make a meal of the chase.

Arshdeep was lucky that Sooryavanshi missed out on a sixth six when he mistimed a full toss, only for Shreyas Iyer to grab it with ease.

However, it was the wily Chahal who brought the Royals back into the game just when Yashasvi Jaiswal (51 off 27 balls) looked like slowly taking the game away in the company of Dhruv Jurel (20 off 16 balls).

However, Jurel committed hara-kiri, offering an easy skier off a full toss, but it was the manner in which Jaiswal and skipper Riyan Parag (29 off 16 balls) were taken out that deserved more than an honourable mention.

For both, the pace on the ball was considerably taken off and flighted outside the off-stump line without giving enough room to chance their arms. Both were holed out at long-off.

But then, Ferreira and Dubey had other ideas as Chahal's good work went down the drain. Earlier, Stoinis muscled his way to a 20-ball half-century despite a gallant effort from young leg-spinner Yash Raj Punja as Punjab Kings posted a competitive 222 for 4 after being put in to bat. 

With IANS inputs 

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Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Rajasthan Royals Punjab Kings MS Dhoni IPL 2026 Cricket