5 min readJun 21, 2026 10:26 PM IST Of the many ways to issue rejoinders addressing scepticism on his readiness for the big stage, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, true to his style, chose the most emphatic one. In the final of the A-Teams’ Tri-Series at Dambulla, the 15-year-old scored a 29-ball 94 against Sri Lanka, triggering yet another break-and-make cycle of records. Courtesy of his knock, wherein he scored the fastest-ever List A half-century, India sailed to a comfortable 66-triumph. Sooryavanshi took 11 deliveries to score his fifty, and no one had ever done so in fewer balls. Drawing poetic parallels, his blitzkrieg against Sri Lanka came at the cost of a Lankan’s record, with the previous fastest fifty in List A cricket being scored by the former all-rounder, Kaushalya Weeraratne. He had scored a 12-ball half-century whilst playing for Ragama CC, while fellow countryman Thisara Perera — now demoted from second to third on the pedestal — has a 13-ball List A fifty to his name. The pre-match discourse for the game was centered not on …