Umran Malik equals Lasith Malinga's elusive IPL feat after sensational four-wicket last over against PBKS
Umran Malik bowled a four-wicket last over to win the Player of the Match award against Punjab Kings on Sunday
In four of their five previous matches, Punjab Kings settled for nothing less than 180. They own a power-packed batting line-up with England star Liam Livingstone leading the charge. And he was on the on the charge on Sunday afternoon at the DY Patil Sports academy as well with his 33-ball 60, yet PBKS were folded for 151, courtesy of a brilliant bowling from Sunrisers Hyderabad. And one of those wrecker-in-chiefs was young Umran Malik who bowled a four-wicket last over to win the Player of the Match award and en route to his sensational bowling figure, Malik equalled an elusive IPL feat held by legendary bowler Lasith Malinga.
_1650251456126_1650251465769.jpg "Umran Malik; Lasith Malinga")
In the final over of Punjab's innings, Umran dismissed Odean Smith in the first ball with a short and quicker delivery. A delivery later, he dismissed Rahul Chahar and Vaibhav Arora in consecutive balls while Arshdeep Singh was run out in the final ball of the innings. Umran hence completed a triple-wicket maiden.
The 22-year-old joined his former mentor Irfan Pathan (PBKS vs MI Mohali 2008), Sri Lanka great Malinga (MI vs Deccan Durban 2009) and Jaydev Unadkat (RPS vs SRH Hyderabad 2017) in the list of bowlers to deliver a maiden in the 20th over of an IPL game. However, only Malinga and Umran's overs were in the first innings of a game. Umran also joined Malinga in an elite list of bowlers with a wicket maiden in the final over. Unadkat is the only other bowler in the list.
Chasing 152, SRH lost captain Kane Williamson earlye before being revived by a fifty-run stand by Rahul Tripathi and Abhishek Sharma. But it was a patient partnership from Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran that helped SRH complete the chase with seven balls to spare.
"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. I can catch myself, I'm a good fielder," Malik said after collecting his Player of the Match award.
