Umran Malik, the SunRisers Hyderabad pacer, while bowling in the death displayed skills that can easily go down as one of the greatest last overs played in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.
Malik, a raw fast bowler from Jammu and Kashmir, took four wickets in the last over and gave no runs, limiting opponents Punjab Kings to 151 all out. In the four overs he was handed the ball in the match last night, Malik gave only 28 runs.
At 151/6 Punjab Kings wanted to secure some boundaries and with Odean Smith and Kagiso Rabada at the crease, it didn’t seem like a tough task.
Then came Malik with the ball. In quick succession, Malik dismissed Smith in the second ball of his over. Then Rahul Chahar was bowled next as the stumps went flying. Vaibhav Arora came in next and was gone in a similar manner.
Only Arshdeep Singh managed to hit the ball and push it to short cover for the final delivery, but was run out. He gave no runs to PBKS in the last over.
Watch the spectacular last over here:
Twitter was all praise for the 22-year-old star bowler with many, including Congress MP Shashi Tharoor saying he should be in the Indian men’s squad.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti working President KTR too lavished praises on Malik and called it “probably the best ever over in IPL”.
“Umran Malik makes sure you don't take your eyes of the ball even when watching television. Exhilarating stuff,” Ravi Shashtri tweeted.
Malik won player of the match for his outstanding bowling and SunRisers won the game as well.
Umran Malik became just the fourth bowler after Irfan Pathan in 2008, Lasith Malinga in 2009 and Jaydev Unadkat in 2017 to bowl a maiden in the final over of an IPL innings.
He also delivered the fastest delivery of the match last evening.
Last season, he notched up a speed of 152.95 kilometres per hour against Royal Challengers Bangalore, the fastest delivery by an Indian in the IPL’s history. The reason why the 150 kmph delivery is so significant is because not many Indian fast bowlers have managed to breach the barrier.
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