Teenage batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continued to raise his profile by scoring a 55-ball hundred in the Under-19 World Cup final at Harare Sports Club on Friday.Sooryavanshi reached his hundred in the 20th hole through Ralphie Albert’s single. He hit eight fours and as many sixes to reach this milestone.In the process, he became the highest-scoring batsman at the Men’s Under-19 World Cup, breaking Dewald Brevis’ record of 18 set in 2022. Sooryavanshi also became the first batsman to hit 100 sixes in junior ODIs.He also forged a crucial 142-run partnership with skipper Ayush Mhatre before the India skipper was caught off Alex Green’s delivery in the 19th over.Earlier, India captain Ayush Mhatt won the coin toss and was selected to play England in the ICC U-19 World Cup final on Friday.India’s squad remains unchanged while England replaces Alex French with Alex Green.Both India and England are unbeaten in the tournament so far. India beat Asian rivals Afghanistan by seven runs in the semi-finals, while England beat arch-rivals and the tournament’s second most successful team, Australia, by 27 runs in the semi-finals.World Cup 2026 India U-19 vs England U-19 Final 11-a-side match:India U19 No. 11: Aaron George, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre (centre), Vihaan Malhotra, Vedant Trivedi, Abhigyan Kundu (women), RS Ambrish, Kanishk Chouhan, Khilan Patel, Henil Patel, Deepesh Devendran.England U19 played 11 players: Ben Dawkins, Joseph Moores, Ben Mays, Thomas Rue (w/c), Caleb Falconer, Ralphie Albert, Farhan Ahmed, Sebastian Morgan, James Minto, Manny Ramsden, Alex Green.
