Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: Youngest Batter to Score Half-Century in Duleep Trophy
Fifteen-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi walked into a Duleep Trophy semi-final and left with a piece of history.
On a warm Bengaluru day, in a high-stakes East Zone vs Central Zone clash, the teenager became the youngest batter ever to score a half-century in the tournament’s history. He was 15 years and 175 days old when he launched a six to move from 44 to 50, reaching the landmark in just 42 balls. No one that young had done it in 57 years of the competition.
He didn’t stop there. Sooryavanshi turned the semi-final into his personal stage, blazing 92 off 81 balls, packed with aggressive strokeplay and intent that belied his age. He fell eight short of a century, but by then the record books were already rewritten.
The previous mark belonged to Laxman Singh, who was 16 years and 23 days when he made his Duleep Trophy fifty in 1969. Piyush Chawla followed decades later, scoring his first fifty in the competition at 16 years and 307 days in 2005. Both now sit behind a schoolboy who has arrived a full year earlier than they did.
A teenager with the armband
Sooryavanshi’s landmark innings came a day after he had already been thrust into an unlikely leadership role.
On Day 1, East Zone captain Ishan Kishan took a blow on his right wrist during the morning session and had to leave the field. In stepped Sooryavanshi, suddenly the stand-in captain in a Duleep Trophy semi-final, barely old enough to drive in most parts of the world.
For around an hour on either side of lunch, the 15-year-old marshalled the field and, crucially, trusted his instincts. In the 40th over of Central Zone’s innings, opener and wicketkeeper Aryan Juyal was on 46 when he pushed at a Mukesh Kumar delivery outside off. East Zone went up for a caught-behind appeal, but the on-field umpire said no.
Sooryavanshi didn’t. He backed what he’d seen and immediately signalled for DRS. UltraEdge showed a faint spike as the ball passed the bat. The decision was overturned, Juyal was gone for 46, and East Zone had prised out a key wicket. For a teenager leading temporarily, it was a telling call.
Bowlers set the stage
That intervention capped a disciplined bowling effort that had already given East Zone control.
After Kishan won the toss and chose to field, Mukesh Kumar and Abhijit Sarkar went to work with the new ball and beyond, each picking up three wickets. Mohammed Shami, the senior spearhead, and off-spinner Md Kounain Quraishi claimed two apiece as Central Zone were dismissed for 266 in 80.1 overs.
Central’s innings never quite settled. Rinku Singh fought hard, top-scoring with 60 off 88 balls. He held the middle order together after Central slipped to 125 for 5, stitching a 55-run sixth-wicket stand with Harsh Dubey, who made 27. That partnership hinted at a recovery, a chance to drag the total towards something more imposing.
Quraishi shut that door. He trapped Dubey lbw in the 60th over, and the collapse resumed. Saransh Jain scratched his way to 13, Aryan Pandey added 22, and Yash Thakur provided late momentum with a brisk 30 off 26 balls. It wasn’t enough to tilt the balance. Central Zone’s 266 felt competitive, not commanding.
For East Zone, it felt like a platform. For Sooryavanshi, it became a launchpad.
A semi-final he will never forget
By the time he walked off for 92, the disappointment of missing out on a century sat alongside something far more enduring. Across two days, he had captained a senior side in a national tournament, nailed a crucial DRS call, and then torn into a semi-final attack to claim a record that had stood since the late 1960s.
The Duleep Trophy has seen its share of prodigies. Few have announced themselves quite this loudly, or this early.
