It’s early Holi & Diwali in Vaibhav’s hometown Samastipur

Patna: The master always saves his best for the final night, or day! Still eligible to write ‘Master’ before his name, a 14-year-old Samastipur boy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi rewrote history books scoring a daddy hundred at the U19 World Cup final at the Harare Sports Club in Zimbabwe on Friday.
As the Bihar lad bullied the English boys around him to score a 55-ball 100 – the fastest century ever scored in an U19 World Cup final – it was early Holi and Diwali at Patel Maidan in Samastipur as budding cricketers broke into celebration to mark the heroics of their own son of the soil. The maverick teenager lit up the final producing a once-in-a-generation innings of 175 runs off just 80 balls, laced with a jaw-dropping 15 sixes and 15 fours.
As news of the knock filtered back home, Patel Maidan turned into a riot of colour and cheer. Young players smeared gulal on each other, burst crackers, hugged teammates and replayed shots in animated conversations, reliving every towering six and razor-sharp boundary struck by the homeboy on the biggest stage of youth cricket.
Congratulating Sooryavanshi, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, in his post in Hindi on ‘X’, stated, “In today’s Under-19 World Cup final match between India and England, Bihar’s cricketer, Shri Vaibhav Suryavanshi, delivered a spectacular performance, scoring 175 runs off just 80 balls. Through his hard work and talent, he has emerged as a new hope for Indian cricket. I wish Vaibhav all the best and hope he sets new records for the Indian team in the future and brings glory to the nation.”
His family, relatives, and coaches were overjoyed, too. His childhood coach Brajesh Jha told TOI over the phone that the budding cricketers of his academy in Samastipur burst crackers and shared sweets to celebrate the occasion. Talking about Vaibhav, Jha said, “He used to follow and complete every task assigned to him. He worked hard for 8-9 hours daily. He also loved taking risk while batting.”
Sooryavanshi first came to his academy with his father Sanjeev at the felicitation function of Anukul Roy, also from Samastipur, after his all-round performance in the 2018 U19 World Cup, Brajesh said.
Manish Ojha, who also coached Sooryavanshi for over four years, said his father used to bring him to Patna for training since the age of 8. “He is a quick learner. His timing and bat swing were excellent, and the strokes were powerful. We observed that he had some unique features like multi-layer learning and replicating skills very fast. When he was 11, we fielded him against senior players in a match and Vaibav smashed 118 runs. I told his father that Vaibhav was ready for big cricket. But we did not realise that he would move so fast that no other teammate can overshadow him,” Ojha said.
He also said Vaibhav’s hard work and his father’s relentless efforts made him a cricketer par excellence and it’s high time for BCCI to consider him for the senior India team. Born on March 27, 2011, in Tajpur town of Samastipur district, Vaibhav began training at just four years of age, and by eight, his talent prompted enrolment at a cricket academy in Patna.