New Delhi: Every generation of Under-19 cricketers produces prodigies but very few stamp their authority the way Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has shown he can.
But there are prodigies, generational talents and then there is Sooryavanshi. The 14-year-old started by not approaching Friday afternoon like a final. He treated it like a demolition job and when the dust settled, his 80-ball 175 (which included 15 fours and 15 sixes) had effectively finished the match off before England could even come out to chase.
India won by 100 runs but rarely if ever have such emphatic victories been achieved in the final. It truly was a case of there being a sky above the sky.
We all know what Sooryavanshi is capable of. At just 10, he was clearing 75-80 metre boundaries against senior cricketers, a moment that convinced childhood coach Manish Ojha that his ward was destined to be one-in-a-million. Now, it seems like one-in-a-billion.
England’s teenagers knew the Indian carried a reputation but they had seen him stutter after getting to fifty throughout the tournament. However, what they didn’t know was that they were about to be on the receiving end of one of the wildest innings in the tournament’s history.
The knock, believe it or not, started slowly. After seven overs, India were 38/1 with Sooryavanshi on 20 off 23 balls. Then, he moved into top gear. By the time the 20th over ended, India were 167/2 and Sooryavanshi had smashed his way to a 55-ball 100.
It didn’t end there. By the 25th over, India had 250 on board. Then, three balls into the 26th over, Sooryavanshi was dismissed for 175 — a staggering 150 of those runs came via boundaries. England’s bowlers looked just as awestruck as the Indian batters who followed. This was the kind of innings that stays with you forever.
His dominance bled into every partnership as India piled up a mammoth 411/9 – the highest total of the tournament and the highest ever in an U-19 playoff match.
In a 142-run stand with captain Ayush Mhatre (53), Sooryavanshi contributed 87 runs. During his 89-run partnership with Vedant Trivedi (32), he scored 78. No matter the combination, the script stayed the same – batting like he was possessed.
In the 22nd over, left-arm spinner Ralphie Albert was taken for 27. In the stands, a spectator stood frozen with hands on his head, disbelief etched on his face, It was the perfect snapshot of the innings’ impact. It was how we all were.
The over before that? Pacer Alex Green went for 19. Earlier, Farhan Ahmed had been carted for 20. Sebastian Morgan conceded 21. It didn’t matter who skipper Thomas Rew turned to, Sooryavanshi charged like a bull seeing red.
His career arc had already hinted at something special. From a century for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL last year to a record-breaking 190 off 84 balls for Bihar against Arunachal Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, age-group cricket was never going to hold him back.
Such is his connection with six-hitting that the youngster has scored a total of 110 sixes in 25 innings in Youth ODIs. For context, thirty of those have come in this tournament alone. For further mind boggling context, no one else has even 40 in this format.
Questions answered
He’d played impactful knocks earlier in this World Cup – 72, 40, 52, 30, 68 – but none matched the weight of expectation that followed him. So lofty are the standards set by him, it felt underwhelming. And a tournament like this would have always felt incomplete without a Sooryavanshi century.
If his big-match temperament was ever in doubt, producing a knock for the history books in the final was the loudest answer. The innings is also the highest score by any batter in an ICC tournament final, either at the Under-19s or senior level.
England’s chase was always in doubt — more because of Sooryavanshi than anything they did. Ben Dawkins (66) and Ben Mayes (45) started with a 74-run stand. But skipper Rew’s dismissal in the 18th over triggered a collapse.
Caleb Falconer registered a resilient 115 off 67 and England launched a mini-fightback with a 92-run partnership courtesy him and James Minto but it was too little, too late.
India won their sixth title, cementing their position as the most successful team in the competition. At the centre of it all stood a 14-year-old boy from Samastipur, Bihar who made the final feel like a personal statement. A once-in-a-million innings by a once-in-a-million kind of player. This must be what destiny feels like.
