Umran Malik’s spell (4/28) was one of the major factors that led Sunrisers Hyderabad to their fourth straight victory in IPL 2022, in Navi Mumbai on Sunday. Just as he does on every other occasion, the young Jammu and Kashmir quick worked up good pace and rarely erred in line and length.

What bodes well for Umran is his clear mindset, which is to bowl fast irrespective of the nature of the pitch. The 22-year-old scalped three wickets without conceding a run in the final over of Punjab innings.

“My job is to frighten the batters with pace,” a beaming Umran, adjudged Man of the Match, said at the post-match presentation.

“I did try a couple of slower ones in this game, the yorker as well, while I also tried to push the length further up,” he added, summing up his bowling show against Punjab.

Punjab wicketkeeper-batsman Jitesh Sharma was Umran’s first victim, out caught and bowled off a short ball. Thereafter, in the last over of the first half, he removed Odean Smith, Rahul Chahar and Vaibhav Arora — the last two coming off successive deliveries.

“I used to play tennis-ball cricket until 2018, and started practising with the leather ball three years back,” Umran said, recalling his early days in cricket, as he also thanked his Sunrisers and Jammu and Kashmir teammate Abdul Samad. “Abdul Samad (middle-order batsman), who used to practise with me, got me into the team as a net bowler.”