Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 28 (ANI): Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Tom Moody lavished praise on speedster Umran Malik and said the best thing about the speedster is his willingness to learn.
The SRH coach said that Umran is fairly new to high-pressure cricket and he has a long way to go. Moody added that he had given the team a perfect chance to win with his five wickets in the match, but unfortunately in the last over of the innings things got out of hand.
Blistering knocks by Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan guided Gujarat Titans to a thrilling five-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium here on Wednesday.
“The most pleasing thing about Umran is he constantly wants to learn and improve. Tonight his plans were executed well and he gave us a terrific chance to win this game. Umran is still very new to this topic of high-pressure cricket. I’m sure he will gain more and more confidence in the IPL,” said Tom Moody in a press conference.
Malik took the important wickets of Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, and Wriddhiman Saha. He again returned to bowl in the 16th over of the innings and picked the wickets of David Miller and Abhishek Manohar – both of them clean bowled.
“Umran Malik is growing in confidence in the tournament and he bowled exceptionally well tonight. Picking up five wickets in this match and it is a tough pill for him to swallow to end up on the losing side. His contribution was such a significant one,” he added.
Coming to the match, chasing 196, Gujarat openers Saha and Shubman Gill had a 50-run partnership in just 6 overs. Hyderabad got a breakthrough after Umran Malik dismissed Gill in the 8th over reducing Gujarat to 69/1.
Saha was joined by Hardik Pandya and the duo tried to anchor the innings, but Umran Malik sent the GT skipper back to the dugout in the 10th over of the innings for only 10 runs.
David Miller joined Saha and the duo made up for the lost momentum. Saha thrashed Hyderabad bowlers to every corner of the ground to bring his half-century in 28 balls. But it was Umran Malik, who had the last laugh as he bowled Saha for 68 runs in the 14th over and left Gujarat at 122/3.
Umran Malik struck again and took back-to-back wickets of David Miller and Abhinav Manohar in the 16th over with Gujarat struggling at 140/5. Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan then smashed the Hyderabad bowlers and brought momentum back to their side. With 22 runs left of the last over, Tewatia smashed the first ball of Marco Jansen out of the stands for a six. It was followed by a single which brought Rashid Khan to the crease.
Rashid followed the footsteps of Tewatia and he smashed the third delivery for a six. With nine runs required off 2 balls, Rashid hit two back-to-back sixes and took Gujarat to victory.
Earlier in the first innings of the match, the fifties from opener Abhishek Sharma and Aiden Markram powered Sunrisers Hyderabad to 195/6. For Gujarat, Mohammed Shami took three wickets while Yash Dayal and Alzarri Joseph settled for one. (ANI)