Suryavanshi’s opening partner Yashaswi Jaiswal played a lovely unbeaten T20 innings of 70 off 40, but he was the first one to admit he was left in the background by “one of the best innings I have seen”.

Suryavanshi tried to hit boundaries off 26 out of the 38 balls he faced. He nailed 15 of those attempts, but also got 25 off the 11 false shots when he tried to attack. The most impressive was a six over long-off off a slower hard-length ball from the tall Prasidh Krishna.

A perfect mix of intent, skill and luck. All at an age when most kids are dreaming of doing exactly what he did. Or do they even dare dream so high?

Surely, there must be teams thinking it is a matter of two wickets, and GT can be toppled. Yet their top three keep churning out runs while making them look easy and risk-averse. At the end of the 20 overs, GT had all their top three in the top six run getters in IPL 2025.

B Sai Sudarshan regained his orange cap, but he wasn’t quite at his most fluent. Dropped on nine, he was dismissed for 39 off 30, but thanks to Shubman Gill’s quick start, GT still had 93 in 10.2 overs. This was the fifth stand of 50 or more for the pair in just nine innings.

Sai Sudharsan’s wicket brought a period of lull created by Wanindu Hasaranga’s three boundaryless overs. There was a period of four overs for 23 runs, which Gill broke with two sixes off Yudhvir Singh’s pace in the 14th over. Immediately after that, Jos Buttler  who had got off to a slow start of 7 off 10 balls, laid into Hasaranga first and then compatriot Jofra Archer.

Hasaranga’s figures were rearranged to 4-0-39-0, and Archer went for 19 in the 18th over. Thought RR pulled things back with just 21 runs off the two last overs, not many gave them a chance of avoiding being knocked out.

It might be tempting to think that RR had nothing to lose, which freed Suryavanshi up, but we have seen enough of him in the first two games to know he doesn’t need any external freedom. His first act of disdain came in the first over, off the second legal delivery he faced. Mohammed Siraj, rejuvenated after a break from international cricket, 12 wickets to his name, bowled on a good length, not half-volley, but Suryavanshi launched him over long-on.

At the start of the second over, Jaiswal was dropped, and he celebrated it with a six and three fours by the end of the third over. That was the last time Jaiswal enjoyed any kind of lead. Ishant Sharma was bowling that one extra over to Ricky Ponting in the Perth Test back in 2007-08. Suryavanshi was born in 2011.

Ishant tried to bounce the kid, the kid hooked him for six. He overpitched slightly, and Suryavanshi whipped him over midwicket. Ishant did him in with a slower one, but the momentum of charging down and his amazing bat speed put enough in the mis-hit to clear mid-off. Then he played the regulation cut so hard that the top edge flew over straight third for a six.

Missing Gill because of back spasms in the second innings, GT were being led by Rashid Khan, who went to the offspin of Washington Sundar to the two left-hand batters. At 21, Washington was helping India win the Gabba Test and with that the most ridiculous Test series win of all time. There are levels to it, he was being shown now. Pull, sweep, inside-out drive over cover, and we had the youngest IPL half-centurion of all time, and the quickest this season, in 17 balls.

Prasidh and Rashid brought some sanity to proceedings with ten runs in two overs. Prasidh is the second highest wicket taker this IPL. He is tall and generates disconcerting bounce from hard lengths. He can also bowl a mean slower ball into the pitch. That is exactly what he did. He might have expected some respect, but Suryavanshi hit him for a six over long-off off the back foot. The exclamation mark of the innings.