Vaibhav Sooryavanshi fell short of a century in the first innings and then missed out on a half-century in the second, yet that mattered less to him, as has always been the case with the 15-year-old. His two knocks did their job for East Zone, who cruised into the Duleep Trophy 2026 final on Tuesday with a four-wicket win over Central Zone at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence Ground 1 in Bengaluru.
Sooryavanshi, the vice-captain of the East Zone side, briefly stepped up for the leadership role on Day 1 after skipper Ishan Kishan left the field injured. He scored 92 in the first innings as East Zone cancelled out Central Zone's first-innings total of 266.
The kid from Bihar, keen to prove to the world that he is more than just a T20 star, followed it up with 40 off 43 on Day 3 as East Zone chased down a target of 158 in the final session on Tuesday.
The standout feature of his 132 runs across the two innings, however, was his battle with Punjab Kings fast bowler Yash Thakur.
The right-armer almost had Sooryavanshi out with the first ball he bowled to him in East Zone's opening innings. Angled across the left-hander, the new-ball delivery took the outside edge and carried behind, but fell just short of the wicketkeeper. Aryan Juyal regretted missing the opportunity, and so did Thakur. But that regret soon came back to haunt the bowler.
Sooryavanshi smashed 35 runs off the next 18 balls he faced from Thakur, including two sixes and five boundaries. Two of those boundaries came off the final three balls of Thakur's first over, immediately after the dismissal scare.
{{/usCountry}}Sooryavanshi smashed 35 runs off the next 18 balls he faced from Thakur, including two sixes and five boundaries. Two of those boundaries came off the final three balls of Thakur's first over, immediately after the dismissal scare.
{{/usCountry}}When Thakur returned an over later, Sooryavanshi launched him over mid-wicket for a six before hammering four more boundaries in the same spell. It forced the Vidarbha pacer to switch to the media-box end, but the change did little to stem the flow.
That onslaught became the launchpad for Sooryavanshi. After taking on Thakur, he went after Saransh Jain and clubbed him over mid-wicket for a six that took him past fifty — his second half-century in first-class cricket. He also became the youngest batter to score a fifty in the Duleep Trophy, surpassing Laxman Singh, who achieved the feat aged 16 in 1969.
In the second innings, Saransh, who joined the Central Zone side soon after making his India debut in Sri Lanka last month, managed to keep Sooryavanshi quiet with the new ball. But when Thakur returned, the Rajasthan Royals batter broke the shackles, smashing him for 20 runs off nine balls, 18 of them coming in a single over. Sooryavanshi went 4, 6, 4, 4 off four consecutive deliveries.
Thakur eventually got rid of him off the final ball of the over, courtesy of a stunning catch from captain Rajat Patidar. But the damage had been done. Sooryavanshi's knock laid the foundation for East Zone to wrap up the chase in 39.3 overs and seal their place in the final.