Umran Malik’s joyride: Bowling bouncers on helmets, taking wicket with yorkers and sensing fear in batters eyes

Matthew Wade who had swatted away Shaheen Afridi for two stunning sixes to win the T20 world cup for Australia was made to look like a bank clerk sent to the war. An apprehension-tinged expectation of a bouncer seemingly came first for he had just seen Hardik Pandya roughed up a bouncer from Umran Malik.
All thoughts after that would have been afterthoughts for Wade for Malik’s thunderbolt rushed at him, rushed him, and rammed his pads in a blink. Pandya himself had barely thought about the pull shot as a response but the bouncer had ricocheted off his helmet then. Pace scrambles brains, especially when it’s over 150kph variety like Malik unleashes.
Malik, who has bagged 22 wickets in 14 IPL games at the Indian Express Idea Exchange admitted that he loved taking the wickets of international cricketers with the bouncers and yorkers.
“I floored (Andre) Russell with a bouncer and dismissed Shreyas Iyer with a yorker. These I enjoyed a lot,” he said.Best of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
“I enjoyed the wicket of Matthew Wade as well.”

Umran Malik said that he enjoys seeing the fear in the batsmen’s eyes, and it gives him the most joy.
“The thing about fast bowling that gives me the most joy is taking wickets. And then when a batsman is afraid, I feel that I am bowling fast and I am pretty good, that is why he is afraid of me,” said Malik.

“I feel very happy when I beat the batsman bowling in good areas, or when I bowl a bouncer at his helmet. And I feel the happiest when I take a wicket with a yorker,” he added.
Malik also narrated an incident, when he broke the phone display of the wicketkeeper, who had kept it in his pocket during a tennis-ball match.
“Yes, yes, I will tell you the full story. It was a night tennis-ball tournament being held in Jammu. And this guy Vicky was the wicketkeeper. He had kept his phone in his front pocket. And when I bowled a yorker, it hit bang on the phone display, which shattered into pieces. You have reminded me of a very funny incident, I remember I had laughed so much when it happened,” recollected Malik.

When asked did he pay him for breaking the phone? Malik replied: “Yes I did. He was after me, I had to pay him the money.”
Umran Malik has been rewarded with an India call-up for the upcoming five-match T20 International home series against South Africa starting June 9.