IPL 2026: 'Trying to get my head around it' - Tom Moody compares Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s dominance with Don Bradman

Lucknow Super Giants’ Director of Global Cricket Tom Moody was blown away by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s heroics after the eliminator clash between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur on May 27. 

The RR left-handed opener took SRH bowlers to cleaners, scoring 97 runs in just 29 balls, including 12 mammoth sixes. Enroute to his knock, he also broke the long-standing six-hitting record in IPL held by Chris Gayle for smashing most sixes in an IPL season. Sooryavanshi currently has 65 sixes to his name with an insane balls per six ratio of 4.3.  

RR posted a strong total of 243 on board batting first, and it proved to be too much for SRH. After RR’s win, Tom Moody was short of words to describe the teenage sensation and his batting prowess.

“I’m sort of trying to get my head around how to explain it. The only way to explain it is to ask someone to watch it and come up with their own description, because we’re witnessing something I don’t think we’ve seen in our lifetime in this format of the game, or even any format of the game. We’ve seen amazing things, but not to this extreme," Moody said on ESPNCricinfo.

The Australian further went on to compare Vaibhav’s heroics with Don Bradman, who averaged a staggering 99.9 in Test cricket.

"The only thing I can take it back to is what Bradman was doing, Bradman nearly averaged 100 in Test cricket, and the drop-off to the next best was around 60, so that’s the separation we’re talking about. It’s that in T20 cricket at the age of 15," he added.

The Riyan Parag-led side beat 2016 IPL champions by 47 runs to book their clash with Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2 of IPL 2026. Jofra Archer was the standout bowler for them, as he picked up three crucial wickets. Vaibhav was named player of the match for his outstanding knock.