Vaibhav Sooryavanshi impressed in his first stint as captain on Sunday during the Duleep Trophy semi-final against Central Zone at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 1 in Bengaluru, with a DRS gamble paying off and leaving the teenager overjoyed.
Sooryavanshi, the designated vice-captain of the East Zone side, stepped into the leadership role after regular captain Ishan Kishan left the field during the opening session with a finger injury to his right hand.
In the 40th over of Central Zone’s innings, East Zone players broke into a loud appeal for a caught behind, convinced wicketkeeper-batter Atyan Juyal, batting on 46, had edged a delivery from fast bowler Mukesh Kumar. However, the umpire turned down the appeal.
Mukesh immediately looked towards Sooryavanshi and tried to convince him that there had been a slight outside edge. But, as seen in a clip shared by BCCI Domestic on social media, the 15-year-old had heard no obvious sound and appeared unsure about the review.
With the clock ticking down, Sooryavanshi eventually opted to take the DRS.
UltraEdge then showed a small spike as the ball passed the bat, confirming the edge. Sooryavanshi immediately erupted in joy as his gamble paid off.
Put in to bat, Central Zone crossed the 200-run mark in the final session of Day 1 for the loss of six wickets. Rinku Singh led the way with a half-century and stitched together a fifty-plus partnership with Saransh Jain, who joined the side immediately after making his India debut in the Test series in Sri Lanka that ended last week.
East Zone had qualified for the semi-finals after defeating North East Zone by an innings in the quarter-finals last week. Sooryavanshi had little impact with the bat, scoring just eight off six deliveries, but he surprised with the ball by picking up two wickets in a single over.