Vaibhav Suryavanshi buries his face in despair; match referee’s reaction captures India U19 captain’s misery

Vaibhav Suryavanshi couldn't believe his luck after losing all three tosses against the South Africa Under-19 team.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi understood that captaincy isn’t always a bed of roses as the makeshift skipper of India’s Under-19 lost his third straight coin toss against South Africa on Tuesday. Suryavanshi, however, shouldn’t lose heart, as despite losing the first two tosses, India sealed comprehensive victories in both games, and would be hoping for the same as the India colts eye a 3-0 whitewash against the Proteas in their last game before the all-important Under-19 World Cup.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi's expression told the story, as the match referee looked on (Screengrab)

Disappointed with the result of the toss, Suryavanshi couldn’t believe his luck and buried his face in despair. Even the match referee’s gesture spoke volumes, almost indicating he had no role to play in South Africa winning a hat-trick of tosses.

Suryavanshi isn’t the first Indian captain to lose all tosses in a series. It’s happened to the best. MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and even KL Rahul have suffered the brunt of being on the wrong side of the toss outcome. In fact, the Indian senior men’s team recently lost 20 tosses in a row before ending their rotten luck in the third ODI against South Africa last month.

Coin tosses haven’t exactly been India’s best friend since the 2023 World Cup. Between November 2023 and January 2024, India lost 11 straight tosses and, since the final of that World Cup in Ahmedabad, have won only 33 tosses from 93 games.

Invited to bat first in the final ODI, the Indian team looked on the aggressive from the very beginning. Vaibhav Suryavanshi destroed the South African batting scoring 127 runs off just 74 deliveries. Aaron George, his opening partner also notched up a hundred, scoring 118 runs off 106 balls. The start given by the opening pair was capitalised by the rest of the batting order, as the others came with small and decisive contributions taking the Indian total to 393/7 at the end of 50 overs.

In the chase, South Africa struggled from the very beginning. They kept losing wickets upfront and were soon, 50/5. It was impossible for them to recover after as the Indian bowlers kept the pressure going. Ultimately the South African team was bundled out for just 160 runs, as India won the match by 233 runs. With this win, India completed a clean sweep winning the series 3-0.