Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continued to rewrite records as the 15-year-old became the first player in the history of men’s international cricket to score multiple fifties or more before turning 16.The left-handed opener achieved the feat in the third and final T20I against Zimbabwe in Harare on Sunday, scoring 81 off 48 balls to lead India to 192/5 after India elected to bat first.Previously, only Nepal’s Kushal Malla had scored more than 50 points in a men’s international match before turning 16. Now, Sooryavanshi has gone one better and he has achieved this feat twice.Score more than 50 points in a men’s international match before the age of 16
- 2 – Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (India)
- 1 – Kushal Malla (Nepal)
On pitches that helped the bowlers, Suryavanshi showed a different side of his batting.
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He started cautiously, scoring 11 off the first 10 balls and 26 off the first 20 balls before scoring his second T20I fifty in 31 balls.His innings still included some of the stroke play that has become his trademark. He bowled Brad Evans straight down for a yorker for four and then pushed spinner Sikandar Raza to the ground for a six off 102 metres. He also reverse swept Wesley Madhevere for a boundary.While Sooryavanshi settled in, opening partner Abhishek Sharma’s lean operations continued. Abhishek continued his low-scoring sequence with a two-run win over Blessing Muzarabani, giving keeper Tadi Marumani two runs. Scores of 10, 16, 3, 1, 8 and 2 in his last six innings date back to the third T20I against England in Nottingham last month.Sooryavanshi then scored 75 for the second wicket along with Ishan Kishan, who scored 29 runs, and then partnered with captain Shreyas Iyer to score 50 runs for 27 runs.The youngster looked set for a century before Wesley Madewell sacked him. Brad Evans ended his innings with 81 after taking a long catch.After the departures of Suryavanshi and Shreyas, India could not maintain the same scoring rate. The middle-order added just 47 runs in the last five overs, with Rinku Singh’s 25 runs off 14 balls helping India move closer to the 200-run mark.India finished with figures of 192/5, a total that was competitive on paper, aiding the bowlers.
