Saurashtra opener Samarth Vyas entered the elite list of Indian players after he smashed his maiden double ton on Day 2 of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2022. Vyas became the fifth batter to score a double century in domestic List A cricket after Shikhar Dhawan (2013), Yashasvi Jaiswal (2019), Sanju Samson (2019) and Prithvi Shaw (2020). Also, he became the ninth Indian batter to score a double century in List A cricket.
The 26-year-old took the attacking approach against Manipur bowlers at Jamia Millia Islamia University Ground, Delhi. On a pitch that favoured the batters, opener and wicketkeeper-batter Harvik Desai and Vyas frustrated Manipur bowlers on November 13 morning. They shared a 282-run opening partnership which was broken in the 37th over.
Ajay Lamabham Singh broke the opening partnership having gone for plenty of runs earlier. Veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara joined him in the middle. Pujara did not just rotate the strike but scored boundaries as well.
Vyas reached his double ton in the 44th over from 130 deliveries. He smashed 20 fours and nine sixes during his long and entertaining stay at the crease. Bishworjit Konthoujam took the prized wicket of the opener. Vyas missed a chance of breaking the all-time record of highest individual score of 268 which belongs to former England cricketer Ali Brown.
Pujara unleashed himself in the slog overs and batted like he did in Royal London One-Day Cup for Sussex earlier this year. Pujara hit six fours in his knock. However, he missed his half-century by just two runs. He took 40 deliveries to score 48 runs. After Pujara's wicket in the penultimate over, Prerak Mankad played a cameo of 5-ball 16 but he got out off the final ball which prevented Saurashtra from crossing the 400-run mark. On the other hand, Jackson scored 20 runs from 17 deliveries.
The total of 397/4 is Saurashtra's best in Vijay Hazare Trophy history. Their previous best of 388/7 against Chandigarh last season. Vyas' 200-run knock is the highest score for Saurashtra as well. The previous best belonged to Mankad who scored 174 against Chandigarh.
In reply, Manipur got bundled out for 115 as Saurashtra registered a massive 282-run win. Darmendrasingh Jadeja was exceptional as he took seven wickets for 10 runs in his quota of 10 overs including six maidens.
