Here’s How Umran Malik Destroyed Gujarat Titans’s Batting: Pace is pace yaar. There’s nothing quite like high pace – even raw without much control – that intimidates batters, that pushed them on the back foot even before the bowler begins his run-up.
Sunrisers Hyderabad‘s Umran Malik’s high pace, a rarity in Indian cricket, has been followed and documented extensively since last year when he made his IPL debut and only in his second match bowled the fastest delivery by an Indian in the IPL.
After working hard with South African legend Dale Steyn, on Wednesday, Malik gave a glimpse into the future: how his speeds combined with neat control will produce deadly results for the batters as he took his maiden IPL five-wicket haul, denting Gujarat Titans‘ run chase. There was a common theme in all of his five wickets: the batsman failing to bring the bat down in time.
Gujarat were cruising in their run chase of 196 with openers Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha, having smashed 68 runs in 7 overs. Until Umran Malik applied the brakes.
A 144 KPH snorter crashed into Gill’s off-stump as the batter, after having given himself plenty of room to take on the offside, failed to get his bat down and was bowled through his slash shot. The off-stump out of the ground.
On the next ball, he welcomed the in-form Gujarat skipper Hardik Pandya with a snorter of a bouncer that Pandya didn’t have much clue about and was hit on high on his arm. Malik exploited this weakness of Pandya in his next over when he bounced him out via a mistimed pull shot, caught by a finer third man.
He returned for his second spell with SRH needing a wicket once again; and he obliged his skipper’s wish once again: similar to Gill, Saha made room but was beaten for pace – 153 KPH – with a yorker, the ball hitting the base of middle and leg.
Kept on for another over, Umran got rid of the big fish – David Miller. While Tewatia wanted to play out Malik, Miller, who feeds on pace and has thwacked fast bowlers his entire career, took got beaten by Malik’s in-nipper that raged on to clatter his sticks.
On the last ball of his spell, a wide allowed Malik another go at a five-fer -which he did in his style, going through the defences of Abhinav Manohar to claim a memorable feat.
Umran Malik’s bowling speed on wicket deliveries:
Shubman Gill – 144.2kmph.
Hardik Pandy – 145.1kmph.
Wriddhiman Saha – 152.8kmph.
David Miller – 148.7kmph.
Abhinav Manohar – 146.8kmph.– PACE IS PACE…!!
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) April 27, 2022
