India batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi played a quickfire knock of 40 during East Zone’s chase of 159 against Central Zone in the semi-final of the Duleep Trophy on Tuesday. The 15-year-old slammed three fours and two sixes during his 43-ball knock, including 18 off Yash Thakur’s over. However, the pacer eventually had the last laugh as he got the better of Sooryavanshi on the final ball of the 14th over, despite conceding four consecutive boundaries earlier in the same over.
It took an extraordinary catch from Central Zone captain Rajat Patidar to cut short Sooryavanshi’s innings. Sooryavanshi tried to pull the delivery over the leg side but ended up miscuing it towards deep midwicket. Patidar had to cover plenty of ground while backtracking, but showed great composure to pull off a stunning catch.
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Meanwhile, East Zone beat Central Zone by four wickets to enter the final of the Duleep Trophy.
Chasing 159 at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 1, East Zone rode on vice-captain Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s knock and an unbeaten 39-run cameo from skipper Ishan Kishan to book their place in the final.
Earlier on Day 3, veteran pacers Mukesh Kumar and Mohammed Shami shared seven wickets between them to bowl Central Zone out for 158 in their second innings after both teams had posted identical scores in the first innings.
On Day 2, Sooryavanshi underlined his red-ball credentials with a 92 full of fire and brimstone, but East Zone failed to take an innings lead over Central Zone.
Left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey (4/66) and pacers Yash Thakur (3/66) and Aryan Pandey (3/43) shared all the wickets among them to bowl out East for 266, identical to Central’s first innings total.
In a match that has now been reduced to a second-innings shootout, Central are placed rather precariously at 45 for three at close.
At stumps, Aman Mokhade (23) and Aryan Pandey (4) were batting, but pacer Mukesh Kumar dealt a huge blow to Central, dismissing skipper Rajat Patidar in the closing minutes of the day.
But the 15-year-old Sooryavanshi was the star of the day and he became the youngest batter to score a fifty in the Duleep Trophy, surpassing Laxman Singh who achieved the feat as a 16-year-old in 1969.
(With PTI Inputs)
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