Lasith Malinga

Lasith Malinga
ලසිත් මාලිංග

Malinga at SCG Sydney in 2010
Personal information
Full name Separamadu Lasith Malinga Swarnajith
Born (1983-08-28) 28 August 1983
Galle, Sri Lanka
Nickname Slinga, Maali , Malinga the Slinger
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right-arm Fast
Role Bowler
International information
National side
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 7 November 2015 v West Indies
ODI shirt no. 99
T20I debut (cap 9) 15 June 2006 v England
Last T20I 11 November 2015 v West Indies
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
2007 Kent
2004- Nondescripts
2001-04 Galle
2008– Present Mumbai Indians
2012- Ruhuna Royals
2012- Present Melbourne Stars
2013- Present Dhaka Gladiators
2014- Present Southern Express
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 30 191 83 243
Runs scored 275 475 584 631
Batting average 11.46 7.08 9.89 6.93
100s/50s 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/1
Top score 64 56 64 56
Balls bowled 5,209 9,207 11,867 11,672
Wickets 101 291 255 378
Bowling average 33.15 27.77 30.39 26.88
5 wickets in innings 3 10 7 6
10 wickets in match 0 n/a 0 n/a
Best bowling 5/50 6/38 6/17 6/38
Catches/stumpings 7/10 28/– 23/– 36/–
Source: Cricinfo, 11 November 2015

Separamadu Lasith Malinga (Sinhalese: සපරමාදු ලසිත් මාලිංග; born 28 August 1983), in Galle, popularly as Lasith Malinga, is a Sri Lankan cricketer and World T20 winning captain in 2014.[1] Probably one of the best bowlers in the current world of cricket, Malinga 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 "Malinga the Slinga" both terms still consistently being associated with him in street cricket and general cricketing society.[2]

He is known for his ability to take consecutive wickets, with in-swinging death yorkers: he is the only bowler in the world to have two World Cup hat-tricks, the only bowler to have taken three hat-tricks in ODIs and 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, which is still tied for the 4th fastest speed amongst active bowlers (shared with Dale Steyn)as of 3 January, 2015.[4]

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. He is the highest wicket taker in all Twenty20 cricket and highest wicket taker for Sri Lanka in Twenty20 Internationals as well.

Malinga was the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and was part of the team that made the final of 2007 Cricket World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20.

Early years

Malinga grew up in modest circumstances in Rathgama, a coastal village situated 12 km North-West of Galle. 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 Vidyathilake Vidyalaya, Thiranagama.[5] Malinga had his primary education at Vidyathilake Vidyalaya in Thiranagama, a school situated near by his village. After passing the grade 5 Scholarship Examination in 1993, he entered Vidyaloka College, Galle for his secondary education, where incidentally he also started his cricket career. Here 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.[6] Champaka also helped him to join the first XI cricket team of Mahinda College, Galle.[6] 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.[7]

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". Resulting to his nickname "Slinga Malinga". Malinga has said that his unique round-arm bowling action was a result of learning to play cricket exclusively with a tennis ball.[7] Typically, younger bowlers are encouraged to deliver the ball with their arm near vertical to remove or reduce direction variables.

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.[8]

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)[9] 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.[7]

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.[10]

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.[11] 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.[12] 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). He nearly took the final wicket as a ball shaved the stumps. 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.

Malinga took 7 five-wicket hauls in ODI cricket and reached 280 plus ODI wickets currently.

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.[13] He has been named as the official event ambassador for the World Twenty20 Championships by ICC.[14]

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

He became captain of Sri Lankan Cricket Team in 2014 ICC World Twenty20 after Dinesh Chandimal received a ban. He successfully led the team to win the world cup becoming the first Sri Lankan captain to win the ICC World Twenty20.

T20 Domestic

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.[15] Throughout the tournament, he led the Mumbai Indians attack from the front and was instrumental in many victories.

Lasith Malinga has chosen Mumbai Indians over Southern Express in the CLT20 cricket tournament, scheduled to be played in September.[16]

Records

International five-wicket hauls

Test Five Wicket hauls

#Figures Match Opponent Venue City Country Year
1 5/80 5  New Zealand McLean Park Napier New Zealand 2005
2 5/68 21  New Zealand Basin Reserve Wellington New Zealand 2006
3 5/50 29  India Galle International Stadium Galle Sri Lanka 2010

ODI Five Wicket hauls

#Figures Match Opponent Venue City Country Year
1 5/34 55  Pakistan Dambulla Cricket Stadium Dambulla Sri Lanka 2010
2 6/38 68  Kenya R.Premadasa Colombo Sri Lanka 2011
3 5/30 80  Scotland The Grange Edinburgh Scotland 2011
4 5/28 82  Australia MRIC Stadium Hambantota Sri Lanka 2011
5 5/54 90  South Africa Boland Park Paarl South Africa 2012
6 5/52 163  Pakistan Fatullah Osmani Stadium Fatullah Bangladesh 2014
7 5/56 166  Pakistan Sher-e Bangla Dhaka Bangladesh 2014

T20I Five Wicket hauls

#Figures Match Opponent Venue City Country Year
1 5/31 38  England Pallekele Cricket Stadium Pallekele Sri Lanka 2012

Domestic record

Twenty20 Five Wicket hauls

#Figures Team Opponent Venue City Country Year
1 5/13 Mumbai Delhi Feroz Shah Kotla Delhi India 2011
2 5/32 Mumbai Chennai Wanderers Stadium Johannesburg South Africa 2012
3 6/7 Melbourne Stars Perth WACA Perth Australia 2012

Awards

Test Cricket

Man of the Match Awards

S No Series Season Match Performance Result
1 1st Test - Sri Lanka in New Zealand Test Series 2004/05 1st Innings - 34-5-130-4 ; 1 ct. ; 0* (10 balls)
2nd Innings - 24.4-4-80-5 ; DNB		 Match drawn.[23]
2 1st Test - India in Sri Lanka Test Series 2010 1st Innings - 64 (75 balls, 9x4, 2x6) ; 13-0-55-2
2nd Innings - 17-2-50-5 ; DNB		  Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets.[24]

One-Day International Cricket

Player of the Series awards

# Series Season Match Performance Result
1 Sri Lanka in Australia 2010/11 58 runs with one fifty ; 2 wickets. (3 Matches)  Sri Lanka Won the series 2-1.[25]
2 Sri Lanka in England 2014 12 runs ; 7 wickets. (5 Matches)  Sri Lanka Won the series 3-2.[26]

Man of the Match awards

S No Opponent Venue Date Match Performance Result
1 Kenya R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo 1 March 2011 7.4–0–38–6 ; DNB  Sri Lanka won by 9 wickets.[27]
2 Australia R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo 22 August 2011 8–2–35–3 ; DNB  Sri Lanka won by 4 wickets.[28]
3 Pakistan Dubai International Cricket Stadium, UAE 14 November 2011 2* (1 ball) ; 9-1-36-3  Sri Lanka won by 25 runs.[29]
4 New Zealand Pallekele Cricket Stadium, Kandy 4 November 2012 10–0–39–3 ; DNB  Sri Lanka won by 14 runs (D/L).[30]
5 Pakistan Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, Fatullah 25 February 2014 DNB ; 9.5–0–52–5  Sri Lanka won by 12 runs.[31]
6 Pakistan Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka 8 March 2014 10–0–56–5 ; DNB  Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets.[32]

Twenty20 International Cricket

Man of the Match Awards

# Series Season Match Performance Result
1 2012 ICC World Twenty20 22nd match (SRI vs ENG) in Sri Lanka 2012 DNB ; 4–0–31–5  Sri Lanka won by 19 runs.[33]

References

  1. 1 2 "Mathews takes over as Sri Lanka's T20 captain". Wisden India. 24 October 2012.
  2. ↑ "Support for ‘Slinga' Malinga". The Hindu. 19 March 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  3. 1 2 "Hat-tricks". Cricinfo. 23 Aug 2011. Retrieved 23 Aug 2011.
  4. ↑ TOP 10 Fastest Bowlers in Current Cricket
  5. ↑ Wijeweera, Sajeewa (2014-04-11). "මාලිංගගේ ඉරියව්ව මා වෙනස් කළේ නෑ - පළමු පුහුණුකරු" (in Sinhala). Lankadeepa Online. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Where Malinga was made". Cricinfo. 17 July 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
  7. 1 2 3 Cricinfo – 'My bowling action is natural'
  8. ↑ Clementine, Rex. "Malinga and the Indians". The Island News Paper (Online). Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  9. ↑ "1st Test: Australia v Sri Lanka at Darwin, Jul 1-3, 2004 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo". Content-usa.cricinfo.com. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  10. ↑ Lasith Malinga gives up Test cricket, ESPNcricinfo, 22 April 2011, retrieved 12 May 2011
  11. ↑ Cricinfo – Full length, full reward
  12. ↑ Cricinfo – Records – One-Day Internationals – Hat-tricks
  13. ↑ "Final: Royal Challengers Bangalore v Mumbai Indians at Chennai, Oct 9, 2011 | Cricket Scorecard". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  14. ↑ "Malinga named event ambassador for Twenty20 World Cup". 8 June 2012.
  15. ↑ "IPL 2011: Who wins what | News | NDTVSports.com". Sports.ndtv.com. 2011-05-29. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  16. ↑ "Lasith Malinga Chooses Mumbai Indians Over Southern Express in CLT20". Patrika Group (30 July 2014). Retrieved 30 July 2014.
  17. ↑ "Records | One-Day Internationals | Bowling records | Hat-tricks | ESPN Cricinfo". Stats.espncricinfo.com. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  18. ↑ "Malinga sets hat-trick record as Sri Lanka win | Cricket News". Cricbuzz.com. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  19. ↑ "Records | One-Day Internationals | Partnership records | Highest partnership for the ninth wicket | ESPN Cricinfo". Stats.cricinfo.com. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  20. ↑ "Sri Lanka v Kenya: Lasith Malinga's yorkers dismantle Kenya | Sri Lanka v Kenya, Group A, World Cup 2011, Colombo Report | Cricket News". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  21. ↑ IPL Stats: Lasith Malinga becomes highest wicket-taker in IPL
  22. ↑ IPL Stats: Highest wicket-taker in IPL
  23. ↑ "Sri Lanka in New Zealand Test Series, 2005 - 1st Test".
  24. ↑ "India in Sri Lanka Test Series, 2010 - 1st Test".
  25. ↑ "Sri Lanka in Australia ODI Series, 2010/11". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  26. ↑ "Sri Lanka in England ODI Series, 2014". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  27. ↑ "ICC Cricket World Cup, 2011 - 14th match, Group A".
  28. ↑ "Australia in Sri Lanka ODI Series, 2011 - 5th ODI".
  29. ↑ "Pakistan v Sri Lanka ODI Series, 2011 - 2nd ODI".
  30. ↑ "New Zealand in Sri Lanka ODI Series, 2012 - 2nd ODI".
  31. ↑ "Asia Cup, 2014 - 1st match".
  32. ↑ "Asia Cup, 2014 - Final".
  33. ↑ "ICC World Twenty20, 2012 - 22nd match, Group 1 – Sri Lanka v England Scorecard". ESPNcricinfo. 25 February 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.

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