Vaibhav Sooryavanshi lit up East Zone’s chase in the ongoing 1st semi-final of the Duleep Trophy 2026 against Central Zone. This match is being played at the BCCI Center of Excellence (CoE) Ground 1 in Bengaluru.

After East Zone captain Ishan Kishan won the toss, Central Zone batted first. Central Zone scored 266 in their first innings, with 60 from Rinku Singh, 46 from Aryan Juyal, and 27 from Yash Rathod and Harsh Dubey.

With Vaibhav Sooryavanshi scoring 92 and Abhimanyu Easwaran scoring 69, East Zone answered with 266 runs in their first innings. Central Zone needed to put up a big score in order to make East Zone work hard for the target in the second innings.

In the second innings, however, Mukesh Kumar's 4/44 and Mohammad Shami's 3/56 demolished them for 158 runs. Harsh Dubey scored 24 runs, and Aman Mokhade scored 41 to save face for Central Zone.

With 159 runs to win the game, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi hammered 40 runs in 43 balls, hitting 3 fours and 2 sixes in his knock. He was particularly brutal on Yash Thakur, taking him for 18 runs in the 14th over of the East Zone chase.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi started with a four on the leg side and then smashed a straight six. The six was a pure display of talent that Sooryavanshi possesses as he hammered the ball over long-off from the back foot. He followed the six with two more fours.

However, Thakur had the last laugh as he dismissed him in the same over. Sooryavanshi tried to hammer the next ball for a six on the leg side. However, the ball went high in the air instead of going long.

The fielder stationed at mid-on, Central Zone captain Rajat Patidar, began following the ball with his eyes set on the prize. He had to run quite far backwards, but he completed a brilliant running catch that he secured by diving as well.

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