Watch: India speedster Umran Malik provided another notice of his unique gifts, bowling Bangladesh No.3 Najmul Hossain Shanto with a 151kph corker in the second ODI.
India went down by five runs, despite Rohit Sharma’s heroics with the bat, but Malik provided reason for cheer with his fiery spell, taking 2-58 from 10 overs.
Malik helped continue India’s strong start, coming in with Bangladesh 47-2 and starting with a maiden. He hit a clearly uncomfortable Shakib Al Hasan on the back and on the helmet, but saved his best ball for the first ball of his next over, breaking the 150kph barrier and cleaning up Shanto with a beauty. The Bangladesh first-drop was beaten all ends up, the ball nipping away off the seam past the outside edge and sending the off-stump cartwheeling.
Off his eighth ball, Malik finally conceded his first runs, Mushfiqur Rahim hitting through midwicket, but he conceded only four more runs from his next 22 balls, adding another maiden to his collection. By the time he finished, Bangladesh were 71-6 and in a hole.
However, he was then removed from the attack, with his figures reading 1-8 from five overs, and only reintroduced when the partnership between Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mahmudullah was past 50. While it was Malik who finally broke the partnership, Mahmudullah edging behind, his last five overs went for 50 runs as Mehidy’s unbeaten century took Bangladesh to a match-winning total of 271-7.
Rated as perhaps the fastest bowler India has ever had, Malik’s international career is still in its early days. The 23-year-old broke into the Sunrisers Hyderabad team at the end of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League and has now played seven times for India, taking seven wickets.
Bangladesh’s victory gave the Tigers an unassailable 2-0 lead in the ODI series.
