Sooryavanshi’s 92 steers East in Duleep Trophy semifinal at Centre of Excellence

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 15, struck 92 off 81 balls on day two of East Zone’s Duleep Trophy semifinal against Central Zone at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru on Monday. His knock lasted 118 minutes and included seven sixes and seven fours.

Sooryavanshi put on 161 for the opening wicket with Abhimanyu Easwaran, who made 69 (106b, 8x4). He was dropped on 40 by Yash Rathod at backward point off Saransh Jain when attempting a cross-batted heave, and he attacked the bowling throughout his innings.

Pacer Yash Thakur was targeted early, conceded a sequence of boundaries and two sixes from Sooryavanshi, one struck down the ground and the other hooked. Saransh Jain, who had just returned from Sri Lanka following his debut Test, produced a false stroke in his first over but Sooryavanshi remained unfazed. In the IPL, he didn’t spare even the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood.

A falling reverse sweep off Saransh failed to produce a result, but Sooryavanshi then hoisted the off-spinner over long-on to reach his half-century from 42 balls. He collected maximums off medium-pacer Aryan Panday and left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey during a sustained period of aggressive batting. Against Saransh he sent one over long-off, reverse-swept another for four and muscled a shot over cow-corner.

A further attempt at a hoick ended his innings when he was caught at deep mid-wicket off Harsh Dubey. By passing fifty he became the youngest half-centurion in Duleep Trophy history, breaking Rajasthan batter Laxman Singh’s Central Zone record from January 1969 when Singh was 16.

Sooryavanshi’s entertaining innings helped East match Central in the first innings of the Duleep Trophy semifinal.