“It’s about winning games, not bowling fast”: Anrich Nortje on comparison with Umran Malik: Umran Malik has denied walking off the limelight despite not playing cricket for a while now. During the IPL 2022, Malik took the entire cricket fraternity by storm owing to his firing thunderbolts and got compared with the legendary cricketers of the past for bowling quick deliveries.
Malik bowled one of the quickest deliveries of the IPL 2022, clocking 157 KPH, however, he was pipped by Gujarat pacer Lokie Ferguson, who bowled 157.3 KPH, in the final match against Rajasthan Royals.
The Jammu and Kashmir speedster has been recently compared with the Protea pacer Anrich Nortje for bowling the quickest delivery in the two T20Is, to which the latter responded that he isn’t bothered about the reading on the speed gun and wants to contribute to team success.
Nortje, addressing the press on the eve of the 4th T20I against India in Rajkot, said that he isn’t competing with anyone to bowl the fastest delivery.
“At this stage, I’m not bothered too much about who is the fastest and what the speed gun says,” Nortje said ahead of India vs South Africa 4th T20I.
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“It’s about what I can contribute for the team. When you train, when you are not playing, you obviously think about how you can crank it faster with your work, your training, your gym, or whatever you’re doing. So in the back of my mind, it’s something that I would like to keep on striving towards. But it’s not something I’m thinking about when I go onto the field,” he added.
Nortje further heaped praises on young Umran Malik, however, said that it’s more about winning games and contributing to the team’s success rather than bowling quicker and quicker.
“Malik is a very good bowler, very fast bowler. He showed what he can do. And if he gets faster, great for him. If I get faster, great for me. But I don’t think we are at that stage where we are competing to try and just bowl the fastest ball. It’s about winning games and trying to contribute,” he added.
The Indian team is currently trailing in the five matches T20I series with 1-2 against South Africa. While the visitors managed to bag the first two fixtures convincingly, India made a rebound to their outing in the third match and emerged victorious.
The fourth T20I match will be held in Rajkot’s Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium on June 17, Friday.
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