Lasith Malinga

Lasith Malinga

Personal information
Full name	Separamadu Lasith Malinga Swarnajith
Born	(1983-08-28) 28 August 1983 Galle, Sri Lanka
Nickname	Slinga, Maali
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm fast
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	Sri Lanka
Test debut (cap 99)	1 July 2004 v Australia
Last Test	3 August 2010 v India
ODI debut (cap 123)	17 July 2004 v United Arab Emirates
Last ODI	28 July 2013 v South Africa
ODI shirt no.	99
T20I debut (cap 8)	15 June 2006 v England
Last T20I	11 July 2013 v India
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2009/2010-2010/2011	Tasmania
2007	Kent
2004/05-present	Nondescripts
2001/02-2003/04	Galle
2008–present	Mumbai Indians
2012-present	Ruhuna Royals
2012-present	Melbourne Stars
2013-present	Dhaka Gladiators
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 30 152 83 203 Runs scored 275 405 584 560 Batting average 11.45 8.10 9.89 7.56 100s/50s 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/1 Top score 64 56 64 56 Balls bowled 5,209 7,350 11,867 9,756 Wickets 101 235 255 323 Bowling average 33.15 26.53 30.39 25.51 5 wickets in innings 3 5 7 6 10 wickets in match 0 n/a 0 n/a Best bowling 5/50 6/38 6/17 6/38 Catches/stumpings 7/– 20/– 23/– 28/–
Source: Cricinfo, 04 August 2013

Separamadu Lasith Malinga (born August 28, 1983, in Galle, Sri Lanka) is a Sri Lankan cricketer and present vice-captain of their T20 side.^[1] He is a specialist fast bowler with a unique round-arm action, sometimes referred to as a sling action, which leads to his nickname, "Slinga Malinga" and conversely, his bowling style being nicknamed the "Malinga Slinga" both terms still consistently being associated with him in street cricket and general cricketing society.^[2] He is well known for his ability to take consecutive wickets: he is the first and only bowler in the world to have two World Cup hat-tricks, the first and only bowler to have taken three hat-tricks in ODIs and he is also the first, and currently the only, player to have taken four wickets in four consecutive balls in any form of international cricket.^[3] On 22 April 2011, he announced his retirement from Test cricket. He bowls around a speed of 140 km/h (87 mph). His fastest ball was clocked at 155.7 km/h (96.8 mph) in 2011.

His ODI and T20 bowling average and economy rate are amongst the best in the game. He is known for his ability to bowl yorkers and slower bowls to restrict scoring in the later overs of games.

Early years

Malinga grew up in modest circumstances in Rathgama. He often played cricket with friends on the sand banks and coconut groves by a river in his cricket-obsessed village. He had his education at three schools, namely Mahinda College, Galle, Vidyaloka College, Galle and Devapathiraja College, Rathgama. Malinga started his cricket career at Vidyaloka College, where he was discovered by former Sri Lankan paceman Champaka Ramanayake. Champaka, so impressed by Malinga's raw ability, invited him to join the Galle Cricket Club.^[4] Champaka also helped him to join the first XI cricket team of Mahinda College, Galle.^[4] A short-lived attempt to make Malinga's action more upright led to much reduced pace and failing accuracy. Malinga promptly returned to his natural action with success, and with great encouragement from Ramanayake.^[5]

Style

Malinga bowling against Pakistan in the final of the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 at Lord's.

Malinga's action has attracted great comment. The cricket reference text Wisden has noted that Malinga's delivery action is similar to "slinging". Malinga has said that his unique action was a result of learning to play cricket exclusively with a tennis ball.^[5] Typically, younger bowlers are encouraged to deliver the ball with their arm near vertical to remove or reduce direction variables.

International career

Test Cricket

A graph showing Malinga's test career bowling statistics and how they have varied over time

He made his Test debut on the July 1–3, 2004, at Darwin's Marrara Oval. He was immediately successful, taking 6 wickets in the match (Darren Lehmann twice, Adam Gilchrist, Damien Martyn, Shane Warne and Michael Kasprowicz)^[6] He was impressed by the friendliness of the Australian team in general, and in particular Adam Gilchrist who sought him out after the game to present him with one of the match stumps in the Sri Lankan dressing room.^[5]

He developed into Sri Lanka's fastest Test bowler and a regular member of both their Test and One Day International sides. He has earned a reputation for troubling batsmen with his lively pace and well-directed bouncer. He regularly bowls at speeds between 140 and 150 km/h (87 to 93 mph) and sometimes slightly faster. As time went by he started to lose pace clocking around 130 to 140 km/h. His slower off cutter was also menacing. He burst onto the test scene after ripping through the New Zealand top order, helping Sri Lanka draw the test series on their 2006/07 tour of New Zealand. He announced his retirement from Test cricket on 22 April 2011 in order to prolong his career in ODI and T20 cricket.^[7]

One Day Internationals (ODI)

Malinga debuted on July 11, 2004 when Sri Lanka played the United Arab Emirates at Dambulla. Since then he has become a regular member on the ODI squad.

During the Sri Lankan team's tour of New Zealand in 2004–2005, the New Zealand team found his action hard to play and the NZ captain, Stephen Fleming asked the umpire to change his belt and tie to a lighter colour so that they would be better able to see the ball being released from Malinga's hand. The umpire did not do so.

Malinga became a highlight during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, when on March 28, 2007, against South Africa he became the first ever player to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in international cricket.^[8] This was also only the fifth hat-trick in World Cup history, the third ODI hat-trick for Sri Lanka and the 24th in all ODI history.^[9] Malinga's victims were Shaun Pollock (bowled at 13), Andrew Hall (caught by Upul Tharanga at 0), Jacques Kallis (caught by Kumar Sangakkara at 86), and Makhaya Ntini (bowled at 0). Despite Malinga's lethal spell, however, South Africa proceeded to win the match by 1 wicket with 10 balls still left. During the 2011 Cricket World Cup, Malinga took his second career hat-trick in Sri Lanka's group stage match against Kenya. This made him the first bowler to take two World Cup hat-tricks, and the fourth to take two hat-tricks in all One Day International cricket (alongside Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq and Chaminda Vaas). In August 2011, he managed yet another hat-trick, against Australia, to become the first man to take three hat-tricks in ODI cricket.

T20 Domestic (T20)

Malinga plays for Indian Premier League (IPL) team Mumbai Indians. He is their strike bowler in this format and is a leading bowler in the competition. World record holder Sachin Tendulkar and ex-Mumbai Indians captain described Malinga as an important cog in the Mumbai Indians game plan after the retirement of strike bowler and captain Shaun Pollock, who represented the team in the first season. In the first match for the Mumbai Indians in the fourth season, he got 5 wickets against Delhi Daredevils, restricting them to a mere 95. His best bowling figures ever is 6/7 for Melbourne Stars against Perth Scorchers in December 2012.

He won the Purple Cap award (most wickets) in the fourth season of Indian Premier League with 28 scalps in 16 matches.^[10] Throughout the tournament, he led the Mumbai Indians attack from the front and was instrumental in many victories.

Twenty20 International (Twenty20)

In the 2011 Champions League Twenty20, he was the highest wicket taker in the tournament and won the golden wicket for this performance and won the award for the player of the tournament. Malinga also hit a lot of runs.^[11] Sri Lankan pacer Malinga has been named as the official event ambassador for the World Twenty20 Championships by ICC.^[12]

Malinga was named as the vice-captain of the Sri Lankan Twenty20 International team in October, 2012.^[1]

Records

• Only bowler in cricketing history to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in international cricket (vs. South Africa March 2007).^[13]
• The first and, to date, only bowler in cricketing history to take three hat-tricks in One Day International cricket, taking his third in August 2011.^[3][14]
• Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews hold the highest run partnership for the 9th wicket in an ODI: 132 runs, against Australia in Melbourne in 2010. Malinga scored 56 Runs from 48 balls including six fours and two sixes; Mathews scored 77 runs off 84 deliveries including eight fours and one six.^[15]
• He is the only bowler with two World Cup hat tricks, against South Africa in the 2007 Cricket World Cup and the other against Kenya in the 2011 Cricket World Cup.^[16]
• Best Twenty20 figures in Australian domestic and 2nd in the world.
• As on May 18, 2013 Lasith Malinga, with 100 wickets in 70 games is the highest wicket-taker in the history of IPL.^[17]

Comments

Sir Viv Richards admired Lasith Malinga's impressive bowling during the ICC World Cup 2007 which was held in Caribbean, saying that Lasith Malinga is the best thing that happened to Sri Lankan cricket after Aravinda De Silva.^[18]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lasith Malinga.

• Cricinfo Player Profile

v t e Sri Lanka squad – 2007 Cricket World Cup Runners-Up 1 Jayawardene (c) 2 Atapattu 3 Jayasuriya 4 Tharanga 5 Sangakkara 6 Dilshan 7 Arnold 8 Silva 9 Maharoof 10 Vaas 11 Fernando 12 Malinga 13 Kulasekara 14 Muralitharan 15 Bandara Coach: Moody

v t e Sri Lanka squad – 2007 ICC World Twenty20 1 Jayawardene (c) 2 Dilshan 3 D Fernando 4 H Fernando 5 Jayasuriya 6 Lokuarachchi 7 Maharoof 8 Malinga 9 Mubarak 10 Perera 11 Sangakkara 12 Silva 13 Tharanga 14 Vaas 15 Wijekoon Muttiah Muralitharan was named in the original squad but injuries led to him being withdrawn. Dilruwan Perera was sent as his replacement.

v t e Sri Lanka squad – 2009 ICC World Twenty20 Runners-Up 1 Sangakkara (c) 2 de Saram 3 Dilshan 4 Jayasuriya 5 Jayawardene 6 Kulasekara 7 Maharoof 8 Malinga 9 Mathews 10 Mendis 11 Mubarak 12 Muralitharan 13 Silva 14 Thushara 15 Udana Coach: Bayliss

v t e Sri Lanka squad – 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Semi-Finalists 1 Thisara 2 Chandimal 3 Dilshan 4 Jayasinghe 5 Jayasuriya 6 Jayawardene 7 Kapugedera 8 Kulasekara 9 Malinga 10 Mathews 11 Mendis 12 Muralitharan 13 Sangakkara (c) 14 Randiv 15 Welegedara Coach: Bayliss

v t e Sri Lanka squad – 2011 Cricket World Cup Runners-Up 1 Perera 3 Samaraweera 5 Silva 8 Muralitharan 11 Sangakkara (c & wk) 14 Herath 16 Kapugedera 23 Dilshan 26 Fernando 27 Jayawardene 40  Mendis 44 Tharanga 69 Mathews (Randiv) 92 Kulasekara 99 Malinga Coach: Bayliss Suraj Randiv replaced Angelo Mathews due to injury

v t e Sri Lanka squad – 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Runners-Up 1 Perera 4 Dananjaya 9 J. Mendis 11 Sangakkara (wk) 14 Herath 17 Chandimal 22 Eranga 23 Dilshan 24 Munaweera 27 Jayawardene (c) 40 A. Mendis 66 Thirimanne 69 Mathews 92 Kulasekara 99 Malinga Coach: Ford