While it was Gujarat Titans’ Rashid Khan and Rahul Tewatia who stole the show in the last couple of overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede on Wednesday, young Umran Malik’s fantastic performance caught the eye yet again in IPL 2022.
Umran bowled with fire and at good pace, as always, troubling the batters quite a bit and even giving Gujarat skipper Hardik Pandya a painful knock early in his innings on Wednesday.
The young tearaway pacer went on to pick his first five-wicket haul and also became the first bowler in men’s cricket to pick all the wickets that have fallen in an innings in T20 history.
Mentor and SRH bowling coach Dale Steyn was understandably mighty impressed with Umran and said the Indian team should not be too far away for him.
“Umran was fantastic. If anybody thought he’s going to play for India before the start of the tournament, I think he’s semi-cemented his spot in the Indian team in the future. He was wonderful today, the pitch conditions suited him perfectly, as it did for someone like Mohammed Shami, ran in and hit the deck really hard, bowled straight lines really quickly and disturbed the timber quite often. He was absolutely marvelous,” Steyn said in a video posted by the SRH social media handle.
Unfortunately for Umran though the five-wicket haul did not result in a win for SRH, who lost their way against the late assault from Rashid and Tewatia.
“I am so happy, this is my first five-wicket haul. I will try to do my best for the team and bowl well in the coming matches in the tournament. Hopefully we will win and qualify,” Umran said.
SRH next play Chennai Super Kings on Sunday in the evening.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)