Vaibhav Sooryavanshi answered his critics emphatically in the final of the tri-series, and Sanjay Manjrekar has been among those praising an innings that broke a List A record.
The earlier flashpoint
Sooryavanshi had been inconsistent through the series and was involved in an on-field incident against Sri Lanka A. After India A lost a Super Over, tensions rose when Sri Lankan players allegedly provoked Sooryavanshi and his batting partner Suryansh Shedge, leading to a confrontation that drew criticism from several former cricketers.
Manjrekar had suggested Sooryavanshi should be left out of the next match, against Afghanistan A, as a disciplinary measure, arguing that physical confrontations should not be tolerated whatever the provocation.
The final
In the final, Manjrekar later said, the left-hander seemed to treat 50-over cricket as a chance for maximum destruction, using the powerplay field restrictions to attack early.
Sooryavanshi reached his first India A fifty in only 11 balls, beating the previous List A record of 12 balls held by Kaushalya Weeraratne. His innings of 94 included 10 fours and eight sixes. He narrowly missed a century and came close to the fastest List A hundred, held by Jake Fraser-McGurk, who needed 29 balls in 2023.
India A finished on 377 for 9 in 50 overs. Tilak Varma added 67, and Vipraj Nigam and Anukul Roy contributed late. Kugathas Mathulan, Ravindu Fernando and Wanuja Sahan took two wickets each for Sri Lanka A.
