Vaibhav Sooryavanshi breaks 57-year record, falls 8 runs short of Sachin Tendulkar milestone in Duleep Trophy

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi missed out on his maiden Duleep Trophy hundred after falling short by just eight runs on Monday in the semifinal against Central Zone at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 1 in Bengaluru. Coming into the game after his eight runs on debut, Sooryavanshi took his time in the middle and displayed his red-ball credentials.

Opening the innings with experienced Bengal batter Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sooryavanshi played his innings with patience and clobbered the likes of Aryan Pandey, Yash Thakur, Arshad Khan, Saransh Jain and Harsh Dubey whenever a loose ball was on offer.

The southpaw reached his half-century in just 42 deliveries, thus becoming the youngest to score a Duleep Trophy fifty. Sooryavanshi's maiden Duleep Trophy fifty came at 15 years and 157 days, breaking the previous youngest record held by Laxman Singh at the age of 16 years and 23 days in 1969.

This was also Sooryavanshi's second half-century in first-class cricket, after his first came during the last Ranji Trophy season, when he completed a 33-ball fifty against Meghalaya, while playing for Bihar.

Having been dropped at 40, Sooryavanshi made the Central Zone bowlers toil, as he smashed boundaries all around the park. Batting at 81, Sooryavanshi clobbered Saransh Jain, who made his India Test debut against Sri Lanka last week, for a four and a six to enter into nineties.

However, his dreams of a maiden Duleep Trophy came crashing after the 15-year-old was caught by Arshad Khan on the second ball of the 26th over off Harsh Dubey. With Easwaran, Sooryavanshi stitched a 162-run stand for the opening wicket, providing East Zone with a perfect platform to build on.

Sooryavanshi misses Tendulkar milestone

Had Sooryavanshi scored eight more runs, he would have become the youngest centurion in the history of the Duleep Trophy. The record for youngest Duleep Trophy centurion belongs to legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who achieved the feat at the age of 17 years and 262 days in the 1990-91 season while playing for West Zone. He scored two tons in that edition.

Last month, Sooryavanshi also Tendulkar's record for youngest cricketer to make India debut at the age of 15 years and 99 days against England. Previously, Tendulkar held the milestone, when he made his debut against Pakistan at the age of 16 years and 205 days.

What happened in East Zone vs Central Zone semifinal so far?

Earlier, Sooryavanshi stood in as captain for Ishan Kishan for a few overs as his side East Zone dismissed Central Zone for 266 on the opening day. India fast bowler Mukesh Kumar and fellow right-arm medium pacer Abhijit Sarkar scalped three wickets apiece to bowl out Central Zone in 80.1 overs.

East Zone captain Ishan Kishan's decision to bowl first after winning the toss was bang on as Mukesh (3/56) and Sarkar (3/38) shared six wickets between them, while Mohammed Shami (2/42) and off-spinner Md Kounain Quraishi (2/49) picked up two wickets each to bundle out Central Zone.

Kishan was, however, forced to leave the field midway the morning session after being hit on his right wrist. Sooryavanshi stood-in as East Zone's captain for around an hour on either side of lunch when Kishan was off the field to nurse the blow. Kishan later came back to take charge of the team.

When he was leading the side, Sooryavanshi also took a successful call for a Decision Review System (DRS), leading to East Zone getting a crucial wicket. Rinku Singh (60 off 88), and opener-cum-wicketkeeper Aryan Juyal (46) were the top-scorers for Central Zone.