The Duleep Trophy final at Chepauk wasn’t just about runs and wickets, it also had a fair bit of on-field drama between Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Tilak Varma.
A newly surfaced video shows East Zone’s vice-captain Vaibhav Sooryavanshi giving as good as he got, exchanging words with South Zone captain Tilak Varma on Wednesday and even lightly bumping shoulders with him, an exchange heated enough that Tilak ended up complaining to the on-field umpire.
The moment unfolded during the morning session on Day 4, with South Zone eight wickets down and still trailing East Zone’s massive first-innings total of 708 by a wide margin. As Tilak Varma tried to hold South’s innings together, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi walked up to him, bumped shoulders lightly, and exchanged a few words.
Audio released after the match ended captured Vaibhav Sooryavanshi explaining himself to the umpire, essentially saying that something similar had happened to him during the first innings and that he wasn’t the one at fault.
Here is the video:
https://x.com/StarSportsIndia/status/2098033747098837153
Click to watch this video directly on X
He was referring back to an incident from Day 1 of the final, when Tilak Varma had appeared to needle the young batter. On that day, East Zone’s openers had started aggressively, with the 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi taking on South’s bowling attack — hitting Mohammed Siraj for two boundaries and a six in a single over. In response, Tilak was picked up on the stump microphone questioning what the young vice-captain thought he was doing.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi went on to make a promising start in that innings, adding 100 runs for the opening wicket alongside Abhimanyu Easwaran before being dismissed for 49. East Zone eventually piled up 708 runs, powered by captain Ishan Kishan’s double-century, while South Zone struggled to cope with the bowling of Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar.
Tilak Varma was one of the few South Zone batters to put up a fight, scoring 99 off 211 balls, but the side was still bowled out for just 336. East Zone then batted through most of the fifth day, reaching 388/7, and won the match on the strength of their first-innings lead.
Indian players are enjoying every moment.
