Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s role in the Duleep Trophy final extended beyond his contribution with the bat as the 15-year-old displayed sharp awareness in the field during East Zone’s first innings against South Zone in Chennai.
East Zone’s vice-captain, played a key part in convincing skipper to review a decision that initially went against the team on the third day of the final at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. His intervention resulted in East Zone claiming their first wicket of South Zone’s innings.
South Zone began their first innings reply of the after East Zone posted 708 in their first innings, with Kishan making the biggest contribution with a career-best 270. Sooryavanshi had earlier scored 44 off 37 balls during East Zone’s mammoth total.
In the sixth over of South Zone’s innings, Mukesh Kumar delivered a ball to Ricky Bhui that appeared to take an edge through to wicketkeeper Kumar Kushagra. The on-field umpire did not give Bhui out.
Kushagra and Sooryavanshi, who were stationed in the slips, believed there had been contact between bat and ball. Sooryavanshi subsequently urged Kishan to review the decision.
The teenager could be heard telling his captain to take the review, repeatedly insisting that the decision should be challenged. “Le lo, le lo (Take it, take it),” Sooryavanshi could be heard telling Kishan on the stump mic. Kishan eventually followed the advice and opted for the DRS.
The technology backed up the fielders’ assessment. UltraEdge showed a spike as the ball passed the bat, confirming that Bhui had edged the delivery.
The on-field decision was overturned, giving Mukesh Kumar the wicket and South Zone their first setback of the innings. The successful review also highlighted Sooryavanshi’s involvement in the decision despite not being the team’s captain.
The moment also followed Sooryavanshi’s earlier leadership role in the tournament. He had served as East Zone’s stand-in captain during their semi-final against Central Zone, while Kishan was unavailable due to an injury.
Sooryavanshi again became involved in a DRS decision later in the innings when Devdutt Padikkal was struck on the pads by Mohammed Kounain Quraishi.
Once again, he convinced Kishan to review the umpire’s decision. However, the second call did not yield the desired result, with the ball-tracking technology indicating that the delivery missed the stumps. East Zone consequently lost that review.
Before making an impact in the field, Sooryavanshi had contributed 44 runs from 37 deliveries in East Zone’s first innings. He struck the South Zone attack during a brisk opening partnership before being dismissed.
East Zone eventually reached 708, with Kishan’s 270 forming the centrepiece of the innings. Kumar Kushagra added 101, while Abhimanyu Easwaran and Shikhar Mohan scored 72 and 85, respectively.
At the time of writing this report, the South Zone was in trouble at 176/5, still trailing the East Zone by 532 runs. Tilak Varma was unbeaten on 18 with Shreyas Gopal (2*) not out at the other end.
