Vaibhav slams 92 but East Zone locked in intense battle with Central Zone

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi underlined his red-ball credentials with a 92 full of fire and brimstone, but East Zone failed to take an innings lead over Central Zone on the second day of the Duleep Trophy semifinal here on Monday.

Left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey (4/66) and pacers Yash Thakur (3/66) and Aryan Pandey (3/43) shared all the wickets among them to bowl out East for 266, identical to Central’s first innings total.

In a match that has now been reduced to a second-innings shootout, Central are placed rather precariously at 45 for three at close. 

At stumps, Aman Mokhade (23) and Aryan Pandey (4) were batting, but pacer Mukesh Kumar dealt a huge blow to Central, dismissing skipper Rajat Patidar in the closing minutes of the day.

But the 15-year-old Sooryavanshi was the star of the day and he became the youngest batter to score a fifty in the Duleep Trophy, surpassing Laxman Singh who achieved the feat as a 16-year-old in 1969. But there was more to the left-hander’s batting on the day than that little statistical highlight.

His innings that spanned across 118 minutes and 81 balls was never really a settled-looking one but the Bihar boy showed a lot of temperament to bat on.