Half-an-hour before the start of the Duleep Trophy final, the lower stands in C, D and E blocks at Chepauk were filling up. By the start of play at 9.30am, the three stands, which the TNCA had opened for free, were packed. By 10am, three more stands were thrown open to the public after they had queued up outside the gates. Around 12,000 spectators, including some of them in Chennai Super Kings' yellow, were having the time of their lives, whistling, shrieking and producing new octaves.
The reason was Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, and the 15-year-old phenom took the fans on a little ride with him on Sunday morning.
Final or not, such vibes are uncommon for a domestic game in India.
Most domestic matches are played in front of largely empty stands, occasionally at inaccessible grounds. All screaming: "Don't watch!"
This final was originally supposed to be held at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, which is cut off from the city, but was later shifted to Chepauk, bang in the middle of Chennai, to accommodate fans. "There are certain restrictions regarding crowd attendance at the CoE, and we felt it was appropriate to move the final to a venue where fans can attend and be part of the occasion," BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia had said in a statement at the time.
Sooryavanshi certainly made it a fun Sunday morning. He attacked Mohammed Siraj, flaying him for three fours and a six in the 12 balls he faced from the India Test seamer.
Siraj had actually started well with a sharp back-of-a-length delivery, which reared after hitting the red-soil pitch and seamed away to beat the outside edge near the shoulder of Abhimanyu Easwaran's bat and zipped through at head-height to N Jagadeesan, the keeper. Siraj cranked his pace up towards 135kph after operating in the 125-130kph range in the Test series in Sri Lanka last month. In the third over, Siraj also beat Sooryavanshi's outside edge with another back-of-a-length delivery that kicked up and seamed away outside off.
During these early exchanges, South Zone captain Tilak Varma posted four men on the boundary, including two at deep midwicket and long leg, and invited Sooryavanshi into taking them on. With the ball still new and decking around, Sooryavanshi was more cautious than usual and shelved the big shots.
MD Nidheesh, the Kerala quick, also found substantial extra bounce and seam movement to test Sooryavanshi's technique and temperament. With acres of vacant space on the off side, Sooryavanshi rode the extra bounce and prioritised steering the ball between cover and point over the high-risk option of dragging a pull, against the angle from over the wicket, with protection in the deep.
In the IPL 2026 qualifier 2 in Mullanpur in May earlier this year, Gujarat Titans had similarly tried to have him drag short balls into the leg side, with men placed in the deep. But Sooryavsnshi found runs elsewhere by getting on his toes and flat-batting balls into the off side. By now, everyone is aware of Sooryavanshi's white-ball gifts and extraordinary power.
Though Sooryavanshi has played only ten first-class matches so far - this is his first official five-day fixture - East Zone captain Ishan Kishan feels that his game sense is excellent in red-ball cricket as well.
"I feel Vaibhav is very smart for a 15-year-old boy, I think he knows what he is doing," Kishan said on the eve of the Duleep final on Saturday. "I have heard him speaking to other players as well. I think he is very smart and he knows what he's doing, so there is no doubt if he has played four-day or five-day cricket before or not, I think [at] end of the day you just need to get runs out of him and that is what he is willing to do. So the most important thing is getting runs and just helping your team-mates out."
After combating the spicy hard-length deliveries from Siraj, Sooryavanshi made the fast bowler veer from that length and float it much fuller. Sooryavanshi got underneath the length straightaway and launched Siraj twice over mid-off in the same over. After being on 11 off 14 balls, Sooryavanshi moved quickly to 34 off 24 balls.
Chepauk felt that he was on to something and more fans started packing the three upper stands as well. Hyderabad left-arm seamer CV Milind, though, stopped Sooryavanshi in his tracks for 44 off 37 balls with a rib-high short ball, which was spliced to deep midwicket, and stunned the crowd into silence.
With the early moisture drying out over time and the ball growing older, Sooryavanshi probably backed himself to clear the outfielder, but it didn't come off this time. Following Sooryavanshi's dismissal, a section of fans in the C Lower stand began to leave the stadium.
But during the 93 minutes that he was in the middle, putting together a 100-run stand with Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sooryavanshi had those in attendance hooked, giving them a Sunday morning to savour with his short, sweet innings.
