Vaibhav Suryavanshi breaks Rishabh Pant's record ahead of U-19 ODI World Cup 2026

The upcoming superstar opening batter of the Indian side, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, started 2026 with a bang as he smashed a cracking half-century during the second youth ODI of the three-match series against South Africa Under-19 at the Willowmoore Park in Benoni. In the absence of Captain Ayush Matre, the Bihar-born has been leading the site in the three games.

Suryavanshi celebrated his half-century in just 15 balls, blowing the wind out of South Africa’s bowling attack and recording the fastest-ever fifty in a youth ODI. India’s left-handed opening batter was eventually dismissed on 68 runs in 24 balls, which saw nailing one boundary and ten sixes. He hopes to continue the attacking betting in the upcoming Under-19 World Cup 2026.

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With this knock, Suryavanshi broke Rishabh Pant’s record of the fastest fifty in a U-19 Youth ODI, as the Delhi batter had the record in his name of just 18 balls in the 2016 season of the Under-19 World Cup against Nepal in Dhaka. It’s quite surprising that it took so many games for the aggressive Suryavanshi to break Pant’s record.

Vaibhav Suryvanshi breaks Rishabh Pant’s record of most sixes

The ongoing series presents a fine opportunity for both India and South Africa to prepare for the upcoming Under-19 World Cup, which is set to begin on January 15, as India is placed in Group B alongside the United States of America (USA), Bangladesh, and New Zealand. They will open their campaign against the USA at the Queen’s Sports Club in Bulawayo.

South Africa posted 245 runs to get bundled out ahead of their 50 overs as their number four batter, Jason Rowles, cracked a fine knock of 114 runs at a strike rate of 100.88, thanks to seven boundaries and three sixes, before India completed the successful chase by eight wickets in the DLS method and claimed the series victory.

Brief Scores: India U-19 176/2 (Vaibhav Suryavanshi 68, Abhigyan Kundu 48*, Micheal Kruiskamp 2/23) beat South Africa U-19 245 (Jason Rowles 114, Kishan Singh 4/46) by eight wickets (DLS method).