I watch only the ball and not bowlers, says Suryavanshi, the youngest centurion at IPL

RAJASTHAN ROYALS' wonder-kid Vaibhav Suryavanshi on Monday said he only watches the ball and not the bowler, after he took some big names to cleaners to become IPL's youngest centurion at 14 years and 32 days.

The left-handed Suryavanshi reached his century milestone off 35 balls against Gujarat Titans in Jaipur and scored 101 in 38 balls.

Injured head coach Rahul Dravid got so excited that he forgot his crutches and stood without support to cheer the prodigy.

In those 38 balls at the crease, the rampaging teen hammered 11 sixes and seven fours against an array of international bowlers,  including India’s Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar and Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan and Karim Janat.

“I don’t see the name (of the bowler) much, I just see the ball and play,” he told the broadcaster after the match.

“It is a very good feeling, it is my first 100 in the IPL and in the third innings. I had been practising for the IPL for the last three-four months and the results are now showing up.”

“It was my dream to score a century in the IPL, as I said before I had been working hard for many days and the results were visible on the ground,” the soft-spoken Suryavanshi added.

Suryavanshi, who put on 166 runs inside 12 overs with Yashasvi Jaiswal (70 not out) credited the India player for his calming presence in the middle.

“I enjoy batting with him as he keeps talking positive things and keeps telling me what to do, so batting becomes easier,” he said.

Rajasthan’s stand-in skipper Riyan Parag said his side was able to execute with the bat better after felling short of targets in the last few games.

“It was incredible. We spent two months with him and seen what we can do and to do it against world-class bowlers against Gujarat, words can't express,” he said.

“We changed it from the last game, we were thinking how can we finish this a little earlier, bat with real intent. We practised a lot and we implemented it today (and) it came off.”

“You can learn everyday watching the IPL. Learn how RCB do things, how Surya (Suryakumar Yadav) bhai does his stuff. (It is) a big one, we were searching for this win,” Riyan added.

Jaiswal termed Suryavanshi’s knock as “one of the best” he has ever seen.

“(It was an) incredible innings, one of the best I have seen. Hope he will do it for us for a long time. I was telling him to just keep going, incredible today,” he said.

“He just played amazing shots, he practises well, works hard in the hits. He has the game and temperament, wish him all the luck.”

Talking about the game, Jaiswal said, “We were talking that somebody needs to stay and finish the game after the last three games, I was there luckily today and tried my best.”

Gujarat Titans’ skipper Shubman Gill, who made a 50-ball 84, said it was a day which belonged to Suryavanshi.

“It was Suryavanshi's day, his hitting was tremendous and he made full use of it,” Gill said.