SACA GRADUATE ZEN MALIK SMASHES WARWICKSHIRE RECORD

Last night in the Vitality Blast, SACA graduate, Zen Malik, set a new record for Warwickshire - smashing the Bears’ fastest ever half-century in the Vitality Blast.

The right-handed batter, 28, became the tenth SACA player to sign professional terms with a first-class county when he joined Warwickshire in August 2024, and has since established himself as an important part of the Bears’ squad in all three formats of the game.

Batting first at Edgbaston last night against the Worcestershire Rapids, Malik opened the batting with Rob Yates, and wasted no time getting into his innings, brutally despatching just the third ball he faced off Tom Taylor straight back over the bowlers’ head, arrow straight back into the stands.

He did the same again off his eighth ball, this time with a huge blow over mid-wicket off the same bowler, before sending the next ball to the cover boundary fence with a well-timed lofted drive.

Four consecutive boundaries off the final four deliveries of fourth over took him to 37 off 14 deliveries, with two more boundaries coming his was in the fifth over to take him to 46 off 18 balls.

He sent the first ball of the sixth over to the extra cover fence with a majestic drive to bring up his fifty off just 19 balls, with two sixes and eight fours, to record the fastest ever half-century scored for the Bears.

It matched the only other 19-ball half century ever seen at Edgbaston, which was ironically scored by last night’s opponents, back in 2017 against Warwickshire, by John Hastings.

Malik, having reached his maiden Blast fifty, then set his sights on a big one, and wasn’t done yet, as he proceeded to bludgeon three more huge sixes in his innings, one over long off, one over mid wicket, and one off an audacious reverse slog over conventional point, as he closed in on a maiden T20 hundred.

Agonisingly, on 99, facing the 46th ball of his innings, he tried to turn a short of a length ball into the leg side off Matthew Waite, only to see the ball chip to Brett D’Oliveira at cover off a leading edge.

It was a heart-breaking end to a quite brilliant innings, and few would have argued that Malik’s incredible knock was deserving of a century.

Had he got there, he’d have been only the ninth ever Warwickshire batsman to reach the milestone, joining the likes of Brendon McCullum, Ian Bell and Paul Stirling in achieving the feat, but even so, his knock of 99 goes down in the records as the Bears’ tenth highest score in the Blast ever by a Warwickshire player. 

Congratulations from all at SACA to Zen on a brilliantly entertaining innings last night, when he showed what a class player he is.