Umran Malik credits this veteran pacer for his impressive show

The young Speedster, Umran Malik from Jammu and Kashmir is a part of the Hyderabad franchise for the 15^th edition of the Indian T20 League. He has impressed everybody with his sheer pace. He has the rare capability of clocking 150 plus kmph regularly. Although his control over line and length has seemed a bit of a concern at times, he has picked up 21 wickets in 12 matches in the tournament so far.

In Hyderabad’s last match against Mumbai on Tuesday (May 17), Malik bowled a sensational spell where he picked up three wickets and changed the complexion of the match. As the match finished Malik was having a candid conversation with his teammate and senior pacer Buhvneswar Kumar. During the chat, he credited Hyderabad’s bowling coach Dale Steyn for his brilliant show in the ITL 2022. He spoke about how Steyn continuously guides him and is ready to assist him for any length of time.

“If I’m in the nets for three hours, he will stand behind me for three hours and guide me,”- said Umran. In the same chat, while talking about his sheer pace, Umran said it comes naturally to him and he tries to bowl as fast as he could. “When we played with the tennis ball, even then people did not want to bat against me because I was so quick,”- added the tearaway pacer.

Umran Malik, who holds the record for the fastest delivery in the Indian T20 League 2022 (157kmph) also talked about emulating the celebration style of Dale Steyn. “He does that punch celebration after I take wickets in the nets, I did it one day and it just stuck with me,”- said Umran.

Speaking about Hyderabad’s match against Mumbai, they managed to win a thrilling affair by just three runs. While defending a target of 193 runs Hyderabad was in a precarious position as Tim David played an explosive knock of 46 runs from 16 balls. But a brilliant 19^th over by Bhuvneswar Kumar, where he picked up a wicket and did not concede any run helped Hyderabad edge past Rohit Sharma’s side. However, this win kept the Men in Orange alive in the race to the playoffs, they need to win their last match against Punjab by a big margin and then wait for the results of other matches to go in their favor.