Guwahati (Assam) [India], March 31 (ANI): Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Riyan Parag expressed his amazement at Vaibhav Suryavanshi's explosive 15-ball fifty against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 opener, saying even he and Dhruv Jurel were stunned watching from the pavilion.

He highlighted that the team has been encouraging Suryavanshi to bat freely and maximise his time at the crease, and added that he's thrilled to have such a fearless match-winner in the side.

It was another Suryavanshi special, the second-fastest fifty by an RR batter in IPL history, which helped RR to a one-sided win over CSK by eight wickets in Guwahati on Monday.

While chasing 128 runs, it was his 15-ball half-century and quickfire 75-run stand with Jaiswal which totally put the match beyond CSK's reach. The 15-year-old continues to dominate, be it the IPL, the U19 cricket, the state-level cricket for Bihar and does not look to stop anytime soon.

'We've made sure and told the coaches that he gets as much batting as he wants, and he goes and does some things like that. Dhruv and I, when we were sitting there till the fourth over, we were just in awe. Like, what is happening? Like, how is he doing this? But then I'm really happy to have him in my team,' Riyan Parag told the reporters.

Parag also reflected on the team's strategy, saying we try to make batters uncomfortable through smart decisions and disciplined execution, adding that when it comes off, it looks impressive. He also praised the bowling unit, calling their performance exceptional.

'We just try and make decisions that make the batsmen a little uncomfortable, and then we just try and execute. If it comes off, it looks very good. The way our bowlers bowled, I feel it was just exceptional,' he added.

RR opted to bowl first, and Jofra Archer (2/19), Nandre Burger (2/26) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/18) made CSK toil hard for every run as they sank to 57/6 at one point.

Knocks from Jamie Overton (43 in 36 balls, with two fours and two sixes), Kartik Sharma (18), Sarfaraz Khan (17) helped CSK reach 127 in 19.4 overs before they ran out of batters. (ANI)