Harare: Batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi played arguably the most dominant knock in the history of the U19 World Cup, his 80-ball 175 with an astonishing 15 sixes propelling India to a record 411/9 against England in the final here Friday.
The 14-year-old produced a knock for the ages and raced to the three-figure mark in a mere 55 balls to become the second fastest centurion in these tournaments.
This is the record for the best individual score in a U19 World Cup final and is also the highest team total in the summit showdown of the tournament.
The opener exploded when it mattered the most, reaching his fifty in just 32 balls and continued in the same vein to torment the English bowlers with his wide range of strokes. His second fifty came off just 23 balls.
As many as 150 off his 175 runs came off boundaries, thanks to his 15 sixes and as many fours during a knock in which he literally toyed with the opposition attack and turned the Harare Sports Club into his playground.
He now holds the record for most sixes in a Youth ODI innings, surpassing his own 14 maximums against UAE at ICCA Dubai in December.
Sooryavanshi now also has the fastest 150 (off 71 balls) in U-19 cricket, bettering the 98 balls taken by England’s Ben Mayes against Scotland at the same venue earlier in the competition.
To put things into perspective, Vedant Trivedi saw Sooryavanshi celebrate both his 100 and 150 while facing only four balls between the two landmarks.
Such was Sooryavanshi’s onslaught that India’s run rate was around 10 at the halfway mark, and the projected total was 500 at that stage of the game.
However, the boy from Bihar’s Samastipur, after leaving the cricket world awestruck in little less than two hours, got out in the 26th over while trying to scoop Manny Lumsden, only to get his glove for wicketkeeper Thomas Rew to complete a catch down the leg side off a short of a length ball from around the wicket.
Relieved, the England players ran towards Sooryavanshi to congratulate him for playing an innings that one doesn’t get to see often in a World Cup final.
Sooryvanshi put on 142 runs in just 19 overs with his skipper Ayush Mhatre, who departed following a 51-ball 53 immediately after bringing up his half-century.
By clearing the ropes repeatedly, Sooryavanshi aggregated a staggering 22 sixes in this edition alone, leapfrogging South Africa’s Dewald Brevis, whose record of 18 sixes had stood since 2022.
Sooryavanshi has also become the youngest centurion in the history of the tournament. He was severe on all the English bowlers, but the worst sufferers were left-arm spinner Ralphie Albert and off-spinner Farhad Ahmed, clobbering them for 27 and 22 runs respectively.
After Sooryavanshi’s dismissal, Abhigyan Kundu (40 off 31 balls), Vedant Trivendi (32 off 36), Vihaan Malhotra (30 off 36) and Kanishk Chouhan (37 off 20) chipped in with useful contributions, and even though England did manage to pull things back a bit, they were not allowed to dictate.
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