Why Vaibhav Sooryavanshi said no to ‘birthday cake’ before crushing CSK

New Delhi: Here are the first matches of IPL 2026 rajasthan royalsAnd Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made it special by helping his team defeat the five-time champions chennai super kings on Monday. The 15-year-old batting star produced a stunning power-playing masterclass, knocking 52 off just 17 balls for a mammoth eight-wicket win as the 2008 IPL champions kicked off their campaign in style.Sooryavanshi, who turned 15 on March 27, revealed after the match that he chose to go to bed early to stay energetic for the match against CSK instead of cutting a cake to celebrate with the team.“I didn’t really do anything outside – I was supposed to be cutting the cake, but I went to bed early to avoid staining the cake (on how he celebrated his birthday),” Soriyavanshi said after the game.

After the bowlers restricted CSK to 127 runs, Sooryavanshi took center stage, blasting 52 off just 17 balls, including 4 fours and 5 sixes, at a strike rate of 305.88. Rajasthan Royals chased the target off 47 balls.“The plan was just to execute well in the powerplay – initially the wicket felt a bit sticky but as the ball got older it started falling on the bat well (in his approach to batting). I did think about defence, but today our plan was to control the game in the powerplay because in small chases, this phase is crucial – if the bowling team performs well there, the game can tilt in their favor but our powerplay went very well (in his approach to the attack),” he said.“The coaches didn’t specifically say that the bowlers would attack me – everyone else had said that – but they just told me that they had my back and that I should stick to my natural game and play according to the situation. My opening partner (Yashasvi Jaiswal) communicated with me after every bat – he told me when to take singles, kept giving me opportunities to bat and encouraged me to keep batting when the ball hit the bat well,” the youngster said.After a strong start to the tournament, Rajasthan Royals will take on Gujarat Titans on April 4 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.CSK will aim to make a comeback against Kings XI Punjab on April 3 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.