IPL 2026: Jurel’s classy 75 takes RR to 210 for 6 vs GT

Dhruv Jurel beautifully merged aggression and discretion in his 42-ball 75 to guide Rajasthan Royals to a challenging 210 for 6 against Gujarat Titans after the opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi set up the platform in an IPL match here on Saturday. In the RR innings, Jaiswal looked like getting back into the groove with a 55 off 36 balls after ‘Boy Wonder’ Sooryavanshi smashed 18-ball 31 in an opening stand of 70 in just 6.2 overs.

Jurel seemed settled in his new role as No. 3 and showed that there is place for conventional shots and yet can strike at more than 150. The pick-up pull off Ashok Sharma after completing his fifty was a delight — a testimony to his strong core and good hands. He hit five maximums and an equal number of boundaries.

For Gujarat Titans, Ashok Sharma (1/37 in 4 overs), in only his second IPL game, emerged as the ‘Next big pace hope’ having clocked 154.2 clicks and consistently bowling northwards of 145 kmph. But BCCI coaches would need to be careful as there are stories of Mayank Yadav and Umran Malik to learn from.

Jurel’s knock was a throwback to the good old early days of IPL where there was one person who would hold the innings together before throwing the kitchen sink at the opposition. A six off Rashid Khan over deep mid-wicket after dancing down the track was the highlight of his innings.

With no Shubman Gill in the playing eleven due to muscle spasms, Royals skipper Riyan Parag rightly decided to bat and the crack opening pair didn’t disappoint either. Sooryavanshi-Jaiswal pair may still be pretty new having come together last year but a piece of statistic by ‘Cricviz’ would indicate how dominant they have been.

Out of 113 pairs in IPL history with 500-plus runs together, Jaiswal and Suryavanshi stand out with a scoring rate of 12.04 runs per over and are third in the list behind Travis Head-Abhishek Sharma (12.57) and Sunil Narine-Phil Salt (12.46).

With the quartet of Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada, Prasish Krishna and Ashok all extracting extra bounce and pace off the surface, shot-making during the Powerplay overs became easy as batters could just use the pace.

The fearless Sooryavanshi started with a flurry of boundaries, including one off Rabada lofted over mid-off. The stand-out shot was a last-minute adjustment off a short ball from Ashok that he cut uppishly for a six.

It was Rashid, who dismissed Sooryavanshi, who played one shot too many but Jurel-Jaiswal added another 56 for the second wicket.

Teams:

Gujarat Titans: Kumar Kushagra, B. Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan (c), Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, and Ashok Sharma.

Rajasthan Royals: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Tushar Deshpande, and Sandeep Sharma.