Senior India and Sunrisers Hyderabad seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar is leading SRH’s bowling department with wickets in all but one of the six IPL 2022 matches so far. However, Bhuvneshwar, in a funny way said that it was indeed Umran Malik’s extra speed that is helping him get wickets with his medium-pace bowling.
SRH registered their fourth consecutive win after they had started the tournament poorly with two losses.
It was young pace sensation Umran Malik who rattled the Punjab Kings’ batters claiming his best IPL figures- 4/28 – helping SRH restrict the opposition to 151, a total which they hauled down with 7 wickets in hand. Bhuvneshwar picked three top-order wickets before Malik closed things out.
Speed, swing, and bling.
#PBKSvSRH #OrangeArmy #ReadyToRise #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/Gyp2iSmGH3
— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) April 17, 2022
Speaking to Star Sports after the match, Bhuvneshwar was asked how Umran’s tearaway pace helps him as a bowler. Bhuvneshwar gave a cheeky response saying batters after surviving Umran’s fast bowling look to target him thinking he is the slower one and lose their wickets.
“More than helping me, it means I am a target as batters think I’m slower,” said the senior pacer with a chuckle.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar went on to reap praises for Umran Malik, saying that it’s been fun to watch him run in and bowl really fast.
“I try to bowl to the batter’s weakness or to the ground’s dimensions. The wicket and my skills are what I look at. (On Umran) But watching him bowl fast and get wickets is a joy. Hope the others going after me leads to wickets and not boundaries (smiles),” Bhuvneshwar Kumar said.
Malik bagged his first Man of the Match award in the IPL, and also became only the fourth bowler to bowl a maiden 20th over in the IPL.
Tasked with closing out PBKS’ innings with minimal damage, the youngster stood up to the asking like nobody would have imagined. Before that, he’d taken the important wicket of Jitesh Sharma, and then in the last over got rid of Odean Smith, Rahul Chahar, and Vaibhav Arora.
Wickets in the Powerplay, wickets at the death, @Natarajan_91‘s #IPL2022 has been a dream so far
— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) April 16, 2022
Malik said that he did try a few slower balls but was pleased to get his wickets with high pace hard and short length deliveries.
“I did try a couple of slower ones today, the yorker as well, I also tried to push the length further up. I hadn’t bowled a bouncer in that over (in which he dismissed Jitesh Sharma), was trying to bowl at his body, felt he could be cramped for room on the pull and the same thing happened,” Malik said after the match.
“My job is to frighten the batters with pace. I used to play tennis-ball cricket until 2018, and started practicing with the leather ball 3 years back. Abdul Samad, who used to practice with me, got me into the team as a net bowler,” he added.
