Vaibhav Sooryavanshi fell wanting a century within the first innings after which missed out on a half-century within the second, but that mattered much less to him, as has all the time been the case with the 15-year-old. His two knocks did their job for East Zone, who cruised into the Duleep Trophy 2026 closing on Tuesday with a four-wicket win over Central Zone on the BCCI‘s Centre of Excellence Floor 1 in Bengaluru.
Sooryavanshi, the vice-captain of the East Zone facet, briefly stepped up for the management function on Day 1 after skipper Ishan Kishan left the sphere injured. He scored 92 within the first innings as East Zone cancelled out Central Zone’s first-innings whole of 266.
The child from Bihar, eager to show to the world that he’s greater than only a T20 star, adopted it up with 40 off 43 on Day 3 as East Zone chased down a goal of 158 within the closing session on Tuesday.
The standout function of his 132 runs throughout the 2 innings, nonetheless, was his battle with Punjab Kings quick bowler Yash Thakur.
The fitting-armer nearly had Sooryavanshi out with the primary ball he bowled to him in East Zone’s opening innings. Angled throughout the left-hander, the new-ball supply took the surface edge and carried behind, however fell simply wanting the wicketkeeper. Aryan Juyal regretted lacking the chance, and so did Thakur. However that remorse quickly got here again to hang-out the bowler.
Sooryavanshi smashed 35 runs off the following 18 balls he confronted from Thakur, together with two sixes and 5 boundaries. Two of these boundaries got here off the ultimate three balls of Thakur’s first over, instantly after the dismissal scare.
When Thakur returned an over later, Sooryavanshi launched him over mid-wicket for a six earlier than hammering 4 extra boundaries in the identical spell. It pressured the Vidarbha pacer to modify to the media-box finish, however the change did little to stem the move.
That onslaught grew to become the launchpad for Sooryavanshi. After taking over Thakur, he went after Saransh Jain and clubbed him over mid-wicket for a six that took him previous fifty — his second half-century in first-class cricket. He additionally grew to become the youngest batter to attain a fifty within the Duleep Trophy, surpassing Laxman Singh, who achieved the feat aged 16 in 1969.
Within the second innings, Saransh, who joined the Central Zone facet quickly after making his India debut in Sri Lanka final month, managed to maintain Sooryavanshi quiet with the brand new ball. However when Thakur returned, the Rajasthan Royals batter broke the shackles, smashing him for 20 runs off 9 balls, 18 of them coming in a single over. Sooryavanshi went 4, 6, 4, 4 off 4 consecutive deliveries.
Thakur ultimately removed him off the ultimate ball of the over, courtesy of a shocking catch from captain Rajat Patidar. However the harm had been performed. Sooryavanshi’s knock laid the muse for East Zone to wrap up the chase in 39.3 overs and seal their place within the closing.
