‘Ishan didn’t know I am wicket-taking bowler’

He could not contribute with the bat in his team’s only innings in the Duleep Trophy quarterfinal but Vaibhav Sooryavanshi provided two crucial breakthroughs as East Zone crushed North East Zone by an innings and 210 runs.

All eyes were on young batting sensation Sooryavanshi when East Zone batted first, but the left-handed batter fell for a mere eight and his side went on to pile up a massive 467 in their only outing with the bat. While the total was enough for East Zone to dominate the proceedings for the remainder of the game, their skipper Ishan Kishan was forced to summon Sooryavanshi to roll his arm over with his left-arm spin, looking for a breakthrough.

“If you ask any batter, he enjoys bowling as well, or vice versa with the bowler; they like to bat. Both enjoy doing the other a lot,” Sooryavanshi, who returned figures of 3-0-11-2 in North East Zone’s second innings, said in a video shared by the BCCI. “The wicket wasn’t falling for the opponent team and I was asked to bowl 2-3 overs. Ishan Bhaiya felt that he was taking some risk in asking me to bowl, but he did not know that I am a wicket-taker.” Sooryavanshi, who dismissed Kishan Lyngdoh (25) and Imliwati Lemtur (4), said there is no greater enjoyment for a batter than to taking wickets when required. “The only thing I had in my mind was even if I take five wickets here, I would only get three overs to bowl, so I tried to bowl my best, tried to bowl at the same spot and finish my spell,” he said.

“I enjoyed it a lot because it did not go well in batting for me, so to have contributed with my bowling felt really good. Of course, when a batter takes a wicket, there is no bigger enjoyment than that,” Sooryavanshi added.

East Zone will now take on the defending champions Central Zone in the first semifinal of the Duleep Trophy starting here on Sunday.