What better way to light up the opening day of the 2025-26 Vijay Hazare Trophy, than to make and break records!
No prizes for guessing who kicked it off. Teen sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi hit a blistering 84-ball 190, which included 15 sixes, for Bihar in their Vijay Hazare Plate Group match against Arunachal Pradesh in Ranchi on Wednesday.
He notched up his century in just 36 balls, become the youngest to score a ton in men's List A cricket, at 14 years and 272 days.
It was a day when records were made and broken. Suryavanshi recorded the second-fastest hundred by an Indian in List A cricket – the fastest was the 35-ball hundred against the same opposition in 2024 by Punjab's Anmolpreet Singh – only to make way for his captain Sakibul Gani, who stormed his way to a 32-ball century, thus displacing Singh.
Interestingly, Suryavanshi fell further down the order, with Jharkhand’s Ishan Kishan hitting a 33-ball century against Karnataka in Ahmedabad. The teenager, however, went on to score the fastest 150 in men's List A cricket, off 59 balls.
Arunachal Pradesh, who chose to bat after winning the toss, were put to the sword by the teenager, who also smashed 16 fours in the innings. Ayush Loharuka (116) and Piyush Singh (77) too played their part, as Bihar amassed a huge total of 574/6 in 50 overs.
Suryavanshi’s brilliant innings came only three days after his failure in the final of the U-19 Asia Cup against Pakistan in the UAE.
The quickest hundred in the 50-over format was scored by Jake Fraser-McGurk (29 balls) for South Australia against Tasmania in the 2023-24 season, with the great AB de Villiers (31 balls) for South Africa against West Indies in Johannesburg coming next.
Kishan, who is leading Jharkhand, celebrated his call-up to India’s T20 World Cup squad with a 39-ball 125, including 14 sixes and seven fours. His blistering century helped Jharkhand post an imposing 412/9 against Karnataka.
The Vijay Hazare Trophy has been in news this season since veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit announced their participation. There will be other Team India stars such as Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav and Abhishek Sharma in action.
With the BCCI making it mandatory for India cricketers to play at least two Vijay Hazare Trophy matches, Sharma announced that he will play the first two matches of Mumbai against Sikkim and Uttarakhand in Jaipur on December 24 and 26. Kohli is yet to pick his matches.
