'Future of Indian cricket' - Umran Malik's final over defense against Ireland gets Twitterati talking

The second T20I between Ireland and India was a memorable outing for the speedster Umran Malik, who made his international debut during the first game of the series. He bowled just one over in the opening clash, which was reduced to a 12-over-per-side contest due to the rain delay, and had conceded 14 runs off that over. Hence, he had to prove himself after being given another chance.

Notably, Indian bowlers made plenty of errors by giving away a handful of extras in the form of wides and no balls, and Malik’s over started off in a similar manner. No run came off his first ball of the final over and Ireland needed 17 off 5.

Umran Malik handled the final over drama to win it for India

A small mistake of overstepping gave the Irish batters a free hit, a big chance in such a crucial moment. Mark Adair hit a four on the free-hit and followed it up with another one off the next legal delivery as Ireland cut the chase short and needed just eight runs off the final three deliveries. A single came off the next two balls and Ireland required six off the final delivery of the game in order to win it.

But Malik delivered a brilliant back-of-a-length delivery outside the off-stump, which did not allow Adair to hit it anywhere near the boundary line, and just one run came off the ball as Malik won it for his team and restricted Ireland to 221/5 after India had posted 225/7, courtesy of the centurion Deepak Hooda and Sanju Samson.

Umran Malik did it. He won the skipper’s trust, he won the coach’s trust, and he won the Indian fans’ hearts. A topsy-turvy series on debut for the ‘Jammu Express’ came to an end after a rocky beginning and a thrilling victory in the following match as he also bagged his maiden international wicket. Hardik Pandya, the Indian captain, took a sigh of relief as his team won the series 2-0 with a dramatic four-run victory.

Here’s how Twitterati hailed Umran Malik: