Lasith Malinga or as you may call ‘Slinga Malinga’ with his unique slinging action could be named as the most dangerous death-bowler ever in Cricket’s history. While playing soft ball Cricket and leather for his village school, Cricket-in-charge in the city of Galle identified him as a furious talent.
Appropriately, he was taken to Vidyaloka College, followed by Mahinda College, Galle where he emerged as a school Cricketer.
Slinging arm, low arm; but the control has been exclusive of this man ever since. On one occasion, the International batsmen asked umpires to take the ties off; as they did struggle to pick Malinga’s delivery point which comes straight from umpire’s tie. I wonder if it has happened ever before; probably not. He could have easily broken the jaw of one of the greatest modern batsmen ‘Kevin Pietersen’ in Galle strip which is supposed to be the slowest track in the world. At the same time, Malinga must have broken many bats and injured many toes of the International batsmen with his fearsome deliveries. That tells the uniqueness and the fashion, brought to the game by this magnificent Cricketer who is remarked with coloured curly hair.
Nobody has ever picked One day International Hat-tricks than Lasith Malinga as he has few world records with the ball;
– First and only man ever to take 4 in 4 in International Cricket in any format.
– First and only man to take 3 One-Day International hat-tricks.
– First and only man to take 2 world cup hat-tricks.
Probably the man to take most number of wickets from yorkers in International Cricket.
He has not forgotten to mark his name in the world record books with the bat either as he is involved in the highest ever 9th wicket partnership in One-Day International Cricket with Angelo Mathews who is the current Sri Lankan captain.
With his retirement from TEST Cricket back in 2010, Malinga started to focus only on the limited over Cricket with a bag of varieties and he simply became unplayable in most occasions.
‘Yorker Specialist’, ‘Malinga-inswingers’, ‘Malinga-reverse-swinging’ and ‘Malinga-slow bouncers’ are some of the titles he gained with his attributes. Didn’t the ball itself help me to do most of these? The answer is ‘probably yes’. The captain always kept Malinga’s over to the backend of the innings where the ball is old and would help him to deliver some unplayable reverse-swinging deliveries.
Rules got changed in limited over International Cricket which clearly squeezed Malinga’s tricks and in fact Malinga was tested. Malinga had become a great exponent of reverse swinging with the 30 plus old ball. With the new rule of using two balls per innings; Malinga never received a 30 plus old ball during the innings and it clearly held Malinga back with his tricks in 50 over game. From the latter part of 2012 to mid of 2015, the 50 over game was changed in favor of batsmen more and more. In addition to the 15 overs power play; maximum four fielders were allowed beyond the 30 yard circle during the entire innings. Malinga’s confidence of pitching the yorkers, started to decline as he only could have either deep fine-leg or deep long-on at once. It clearly leaked many boundaries for his yorkers either through fine-leg/third-man or long-on.
Are they the only reasons for Malinga’s downfall where he hardly managed to keep the economy less than 6 in One-Day Internationals recently? Absolutely No. Right after the 2007 world cup, Malinga faced a near career ending knee injury which was ultimately cured startlingly. It is quite fair to say, Malinga’s pace got cut in his comeback; whilst he came up with a bag of tricks yet to lead the world wicket takers in the limited version of the game.
Runs, started to flow with the lack of pace; but the wickets kept coming in the early part of the decade starting from 2010, thanks to the variety. The shortest version of the game became his best part; as he managed to put his all efforts in the given 4 overs.
Was everything ok for Malinga then? Sadly no; as another injury came towards him. This time, it was his ankle back in 2014 and he kept bowling even with the injury for a couple of series. Another operation and the crutches became his friend once more. With all these stories would it ever be possible to ask the bloke to ball over a 150kmh?
He has been bowling for good 11 years in International Cricket, he is still struggling to find his feet on his return. His fitness levels and protruding middle is also argued about. Mind you that he is still the only strike bowler available for Sri Lankan limited over Cricket.
Can anybody lay blame on this magnificent talent at the moment? Can one imagine what he is going through? Is his situation plausible?
