India teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi slammed his maiden half century for India in the first T20I match vs Zimbabwe in Harare on Thursday. The 15-year-old prodigy brought up his milestone 50 in 18 deliveries in an innings studded with 4 fours and 4 sixes. became the youngest player in the world to score a fifty in men’s international cricket.
However, he could not last long after scoring his half century, going down to Richard Ngarava in the very next ball. This was the same ground where Sooryavanshi had lit up the Under-19 World Cup in January with a match-winning 80-ball 175 against England in the final. He had made his highly anticipated India senior debut in the England series in the second T20I after replacing Sanju Samson. He was given three matches, including the 3rd and 4th T20Is but was ultimately replaced by Samson for the 5th match. Sooryavanshi scored 14, 13 and 15 in the three matches in the series which India ultimately lost 4-0.
With no Samson in the squad this time, Sooryavanshi is set to get an extended run at the top of the order in the the series.
Earlier, India’s pace attack, led by Mayank Yadav, dismantled Zimbabwe’s top order as the hosts were restricted to 125 for 7 in the first T20 International of the three-match series.
Mayank (2/18) made an instant impact, dismissing opener Brian Bennett for a duck before removing No. 3 batter Dion Myers for six. In between, Prince Yadav (2/19) accounted for the other opener Ben Curran as Zimbabwe slumped to 20 for 3, before India reduced them further to 32 for 4 with the wicket of captain Sikandar Raza.
Zimbabwe never recovered from the early blows and failed to post a challenging total against an Indian side looking to bounce back after losing T20I series to Ireland and England.
Earlier, teenage sensation Sooryavanshi was named in India’s playing XI, while pacer Ashok Sharma made his international debut.
India also named concussion substitutes for specific roles ahead of the match for the first time, with Suryansh Shedge (batter/all-rounder), Prabhsimran Singh (wicketkeeper), Harsh Dubey (spinner) and Yash Thakur (pace bowler) included in the list.
