Tanmay Baloda recorded the best-ever match figures in a youth ‘Test’ (14 for 73) to help India under-19 register a thumping 10-wicket win over Australia under-19 at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Wednesday.

The hosts bowled out the visitors for 151, with Baloda scalping eight for 41 in the second innings. Asked to chase a mere 11 runs, India u-19 finished the game in five deliveries.

Baloda.
| Photo Credit:
VIJAY SONEJI

At the start of day three, Australia u-19 was at 86 for four, 55 runs in the red.

Baloda began his morning with a wicket off his first ball. Continuing his modus operandi, he pitched the ball on stumps and trapped Zed Hollick in front while the batter was on the defensive. He cleaned up Charlie Henderson in his next over with a quicker one.

Pacer Priyanshu Singh got one to cut into Jacob Pietz and uproot the off stump before pinning Thomas Vaseo.

Cattle showed immense maturity and farmed the strike with No. 10 Patrick Sullivan at the other end. Skipper Yashbardhan Chauhan kept the field open to prevent Cattle from targeting the fence, forcing the batter to take singles.

Sullivan supported Cattle for a while, but Baloda eventually had the former caught at first slip.

Cattle came down the track and sent Ayaan Akram’s delivery over long-off to reach his half-century. He then moved his front leg to clear the long-on boundary, taking Australia past India’s mark.

Baloda castles Cattle to signal the end of the Australia u-19 innings.
| Photo Credit:
VIJAY SONEJI

However, Cattle was eventually bowled while trying to take on Baloda as India u-19 went on to sweep the multi-day series 2-0.

The scores: Australia u-19 174 & 151 in 43.5 overs (Blake Cattle 63, Tanmay Baloda 8/41) lost to India u-19 315 & 11/0 in 0.5 overs; PoM: Baloda; PoS: Cattle.

Skipper Tilak Varma has been the standout player for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy this year.

The Hyderabad batter was instrumental in taking the team to the final, leading from the front with unbeaten knocks of 116 and 51 in the semifinal against North.

In the summit clash, Tilak yet again stood tall, scoring a valiant 99 against East Zone, even if he couldn’t help his team avoid conceding a huge lead.

“It’s an important knock, but at the same time I was only focused on what the team needed. I could have taken more chances before, but the plan was simply to take it session by session,” said Tilak. 

“If some other batter stayed with me, I was confident we [could] have batted through to the end of the day, [and] take it session-by-session till tomorrow and push for a draw. Unfortunately, we lost wickets, and the result went in their favour,” he added.

“A hundred would have been a nice reward for the hard yards I put in the heat, but individual milestones don’t matter as much as the result.”

Though the 23-year-old has quickly been elevated as vice-captain of the T20I side, he reiterated that Test cricket is his ultimate goal.

“I always say to everyone that I want to play red-ball cricket for India. That’s my biggest goal because I really love playing red-ball cricket. As a kid, I thought I’d play Test cricket first and then only white-ball cricket. I’m really keen to play red-ball cricket, and let’s see how it goes,” said Tilak.

 Duleep Trophy was once an important pit stop in a cricketer’s journey towards the Indian National team. But now, with the mushrooming of glitzy and faster highways to success like the IPL and India-A, the inter-zonal competition has slid down the importance chart.

It is not that the Duleep Trophy is irrelevant; a good performance against the best Ranji Trophy players from the previous season still carries significant value. But it is just one more data point in a cricketer’s graph and not the clincher it once was.

Yet, when the 2026-27 edition starts on Sunday at the BCCI Centre of Excellence here, there will be sufficient interest. As the tournament heralds the beginning of the domestic cricket calendar, players’ first moves will be as important as chess openings.

In the inaugural round, the competitive match – at least on paper – is expected to be the North Zone-West Zone encounter. But Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s presence on the adjacent ground, turning out for East versus the North East, will attract enough eyeballs.

The cherubic 15-year-old has a proven T20 game, but the red ball will present twin tests. There are batting numbers to better, for he averages 17.25 from eight First Class matches. There is the vice-captaincy burden to carry, for he is Ishan Kishan’s deputy.

East also has veteran Mohammed Shami, who last played for India more than 17 months ago. He picked up 37 wickets in Bengal’s dash to the Ranji semis in 2025-26, only for the selectors to look the other way. Can he turn their heads this time around?

North will be led by Jammu & Kashmir’s Kanhaiya Wadhawan, and has six of his Statemates, a hat-tip to J & K’s maiden Ranji triumph earlier this year. Ruturaj Gaikwad will marshal West Zone’s resources, with Mumbai batter Prithvi Shaw in the mix.

Defending champion Central and runner-up South have been given byes to the semifinals. The next four days will decide who they will face.