Harare’s cricket ground once again proved auspicious for Vaibhav Suryavanshi. This youngest player of Indian cricket once again created history on this very ground. In the first T20 match against host Zimbabwe, Vaibhav created history by scoring a half-century in just 18 balls and ensured Team India’s victory. But despite this he was not chosen player of the match for this. In his place, fast bowler Mayank Yadav was selected for this award. But why did this happen?
Vaibhav scored a record half-century
About 5 months ago in the final of the Under-19 World Cup 2026 at Harare Sports Club grandeur Had played an explosive inning of 175 runs in just 80 balls. After that explosive and match-winning inning, once again the 15-year-old Indian superstar stunned with his batting on the same ground. In response to the target of 126 runs set by Zimbabwe, Vaibhav scored a half-century in just 18 balls, which was his first in international cricket. With this, he also became the youngest batsman to score a half-century in T20 International.
Team India’s opener Vaibhav scored 50 runs in 19 balls, which included 4 fours and 4 sixes. But despite this, after Team India’s victory, not him but fast bowler Mayank Yadav was chosen as the best player of the match. If you could not watch the match and are wondering why Mayank got the Player of the Match award despite this historic innings of Vaibhav, then we give you the answer here. The reason for this is Mayank’s deadly spell, which did not give Zimbabwe a chance to recover.
Why did Mayank Yadav get the award?
Storm bowler Mayank Yadav returned to the Indian team after about 600 and a half days. His last match came in October 2024. After this, he remained out of the field due to injury several times. But as soon as Team India started bowling in Harare and Mayank bowled the first ball of the match, he shocked Zimbabwe. Mayank dismissed Zimbabwe’s star opener Brian Bennett on the very first ball. Then in his third over he also took the second wicket and Zimbabwe’s situation became weak.
It proved difficult for the Zimbabwean batsmen to overcome Mayank, who was continuously bowling at a speed of around 150 kilometers per hour. In his spell of 4 overs, Mayank gave only 18 runs and took 2 wickets. The special thing was that Mayank bowled 24 balls in his spell and out of those, the batsman could not score any runs on 17 balls. The effect of this tremendous bowling was that Zimbabwe’s innings could reach only 125 runs and India got an easy victory, in which Vaibhav also contributed.
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