Sawt Falasteen - Rajasthan's Sooryavanshi hammers 43 as Punjab suffer first loss

The teenage Indian batsman kept up his blazing T20 form with his 16-ball knock that lay the foundation for Rajasthan's chase of 223 as they reached home with four balls to spare in Punjab's home Chandigarh.

Sooryavanshi's opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal hit 51 before South African Donovan Ferreira smacked an unbeaten 52 to complete the win and inflict a first defeat of the season on table toppers Punjab.

The left-handed Sooryavanshi began with a bang as he hit Arshdeep Singh for a six and two fours before going after Lockie Ferguson for a couple of hits over the fence.

Sooryavanshi fell to Arshdeep after he mistimed a hit to be caught at mid-off. He reached 400 runs in nine outings this edition to take top spot in the batting chart.

Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Abhishek Sharma slipped to second with 380 runs but he has played a match less than Sooryavanshi.

The boy wonder is now the fastest to 400 runs in a single IPL season, getting there in 167 balls to beat Andre Russell's record from 2019 by 21 balls.

Sooryavanshi has been in phenomenal form as he cracked a 36-ball century on Saturday against Hyderabad to become the youngest and fastest to score 1,000 T20 runs.

In his latest knock Sooryavanshi hit some jaw-dropping shots including a flick off Ferguson for a six over deep mid-wicket.

Jaiswal kept up pace in his 27-ball knock after Sooryavanshi departed and despite disciplined bowling by Punjab in the middle overs, Rajasthan remained on course.

An unbeaten 77-run stand between Ferreira and impact substitute Shubham Dubey, who hit 31, steered the team home.

Earlier Punjab's Australian batter Marcus Stoinis hammered an unbeaten 22-ball 62 to guide the team to 222-4 after being invited to bat first.

But the batting blitz was not enough as Punjab, led by Shreyas Iyer and coached by Ricky Ponting, suffered their first defeat in eight matches this season.

C.Hamad--SF-PST