Fifteen-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's 97 from 29 balls in the IPL 2026 Eliminator narrowly missed Chris Gayle’s fastest century in IPL record, but his season has been historic. With 65 sixes, he has broken the all-time record for a single T20 edition, crossed 600 runs as a teenager, and surged to the top of the Orange Cap standings while redefining power-hitting in knockout cricket.
Three figures were right there for the taking. Twenty-eight balls faced, 97 runs on the board, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was breathing down the neck of Chris Gayle's fastest century in IPL record with every swing of his bat. In this IPL Eliminator 2026 between Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad, no one had expected the kind of fireworks that actually happened. A number of records were broken before Royals sailed past SRH . The relentles pace set earlier by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi ultimately proved too much for SRH.
How did the fastest century in IPL record stay intact? Here is how it happened. Sooryavanshi was unstoppable on the night. However, the 29th delivery arrived and everything changed in an instant. A touch short, a slightly mistimed flick aimed at third man, and suddenly the ball was nestling in a fielder's hands. It was heartbreaking as Vaibhav just stayed put in disbelief, knowing he had just missed rewriting cricket history. The fastest century in IPL record stayed with Gayle. The crowd let out a long, collective sigh of disappointment as the fact sank in that they would not witness a historic record being broken.
For ten full seconds, the Sooryavanshi didn't move. He just stood there on the pitch, bat still in his grip, trying to process that he had fallen three runs short. The walk back felt interminable. Truthfully, it looked even longer than that. However, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi broke enough other records.
But here’s what you need to understand about Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: the scoreboard rarely gets the full picture. Long before that dismissal, the 15-year-old had already done something no cricketer, anywhere, has ever pulled off. The twelve sixes he launched that night pushed his IPL 2026 count to 65, sailing past Gayle’s 59 from 2012 and setting a new high for sixes in a single edition of any T20 tournament on the planet. No batter had ever broken the 60 barrier in one campaign. Sooryavanshi now sits on 65, with room to spare.
The numbers from Wednesday’s IPL Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad almost feel made up. A 16-ball fifty, that equalled Suresh Raina’s mark for the fastest half-century in an IPL knockout. He became the first teenager in the world to go past 600 runs in a T20 tournament. His season tally of 680 runs across 15 innings surpassed Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 626 for Rajasthan Royals in 2023, which stood as the previous best for any uncapped player. And that habit of clearing the rope ten or more times in an innings? He’s now done it four times, matching Gayle’s all-time record there too.
Right now Sooryavanshi leads the Orange Cap race, averaging 45 with a strike rate of 243.
Near-misses in the nervous nineties tend to linger with a batter. But what unfolded on Wednesday wasn’t really a failure. It was a reminder that we’re watching is something properly rare, a 15-year-old who walks to the crease carrying a quiet authority most players take a decade to master. The last has not been heard about Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and the fastest century in IPL record.