Kamal Ghorui
Teenage batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continued to grow his persona as he scored a 55-ball century in the Under-19 World Cup final against England at Harare Sports Club on Friday.Sooryavanshi reached his hundred in the 20th over with a single off Ralphie Albert’s delivery. He hit eight fours and as many sixes to reach the milestone.In the process, he became the batter with the most sixes in an Under-19 men’s World Cup, battering Dewald Brevis’ previous record of 18 in 2022. Sooryavanshi also became the first batter to hit 100 sixes in Youth ODIs.He also stitched a crucial 142-run partnership with the skipper Ayush Mhatre, before the Indian captain was caught in the 19th over off Alex Green’s delivery.Sooryavanshi was eventually dismissed in the 26th over, but not before he delivered a performance for the ages, scoring 175 runs off just 80 balls. In his innings, Sooryavanshi hit a total of fifteen sixes and as many fours.Earlier, India skipper Ayush Mhatre won the toss and elected to bat against England in the final of the ICC U-19 World Cup here on Friday.India are playing an unchanged side, while England replaced Alex French with Alex Green.Both India and England have been undefeated in the tournament so far. While India defeated Asian counterparts Afghanistan by seven wickets in the semifinal, England outdid arch-rivals and the second-most successful team at the tournament-Australia-by 27 runs in the semis.India Under-19 vs England Under-19 World Cup 2026 final playing 11s:India U19 playing 11: Aaron George, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre(c), Vihaan Malhotra, Vedant Trivedi, Abhigyan Kundu(w), RS Ambrish, Kanishk Chouhan, Khilan Patel, Henil Patel, Deepesh Devendran.England U19 playing 11: Ben Dawkins, Joseph Moores, Ben Mayes, Thomas Rew(w/c), Caleb Falconer, Ralphie Albert, Farhan Ahmed, Sebastian Morgan, James Minto, Manny Lumsden, Alex Green.
