IPL 2026: Pat Cummins hints at ‘Plan B and Plan C’ for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi in SRH vs RR Eliminator clash

Rajasthan Royals (RR) youngster Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has been in top form in IPL 2026. He has aggregated 583 runs from 14 matches at a strike-rate of 232.27, and has slammed three fifties and one century.

The 15-year-old is in sixth place in the Orange Cap standings for most run-getters, and is significantly distant from Gujarat Titans' (GT) Sai Sudharsan, who is the current Orange Cap holder with 652 runs from 15 matches.

The Bihar teenager played in Rajasthan Royals' both matches against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the league stage.

While he was dismissed for a golden duck in the first meeting between the two teams in Hyderabad, he punished the opposition when the two teams met after he slammed 103 runs from just 37 balls, although his efforts in that match eventually went in vain.

And now, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad are set to lock horns against each other in the IPL 2026 Eliminator in Mullanpur on Wednesday.

“But when there are probably one or two players in every lineup who can take the game away from the opposition, you do spend a little bit longer working on a Plan B or Plan C. So, yeah, we’ll plan for him," he added.

The senior Australia pacer hoped that SRH would be able to control Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's run-scoring in the Eliminator. “Even though he got a hundred against us last time, I thought there were times when we actually bowled quite well to him and kept him quiet. At other times, he got away from us. So, we’ll learn from that,” the 33-year-old explained.

Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss in that match and opted to field in Jaipur. The visitors lost Yashasvi Jaiswal in the third over, but Vaibhav and Dhruv Jurel (51) forged a 112-run partnership for the second wicket. That eventually set the platform for RR to post a big total, and they eventually finished with 228/6 from 20 overs.

Sunrisers Hyderabad lost Travis Head in the very first over of the chase, but the 2016 IPL champions never gave up. Ishan Kishan (74) and Abhishek Sharma (57) forged a 132-run partnership from just 55 balls, and that changed the complexion of the game completely.

While both Kishan and Abhishek departed not long after, Heinrich Klaasen (29) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (36) played crucial knocks to help SRH chase down the total with five wickets and nine balls to spare.

As far as their IPL 2026 encounters are concerned, SRH hold a 2-0 lead over RR, having won both the matches so far. Overall, SRH have won 14 matches compared to RR’s nine wins in 23 matches.