Happy Birthday Lasith Malinga: A look at his monumental records
Sri Lankan maestro Lasith Malinga, on Friday, turned 37. One of the greatest limited-overs bowlers, Malinga hogged the limelight for his quirky round-arm action as he burst on to international cricket. Over the years, his searing yorkers and deceptive slower ones have jeopardized the batsmen, especially during the death overs. Let us have a look at Malinga's astonishing feats.
In a long-standing career that has spanned over 16 years, Malinga has registered exceptional numbers. Having represented Sri Lanka in 226 ODIs, he has snapped up 338 wickets at an average of 28.87. The incredible tally includes 8 five-wicket hauls and 11 four-fors. Malinga also has 107 T20I and 101 Test wickets to his name at 20.79 and 33.15 respectively.
Till date, Malinga is the leading wicket-taker in T20 Internationals. In fact, he is the only bowler in T20I history to take 100 wickets (107). The likes of Shahid Afridi (98), Shakib Al Hasan (92) and Rashid Khan (89) follow him on the tally.
Malinga holds the record of clinching most number of hat-tricks in white-ball cricket (ODIs - 3, T20Is - 2). He is the only bowler to take four wickets from as many consecutive deliveries in both ODI (vs South Africa March, 2007) and T20I cricket (vs New Zealand, 2019). Notably, Malinga is also the only player to take two World Cup hat-tricks (2007 and 2011).
Malinga is the second-highest wicket-taker in T20 cricket, having taken 390 wickets at a remarkable average of 19.69. He is only behind West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, who recently completed 500 T20 wickets. Meanwhile, the former also leads the wickets column in the Indian Premier League with 170 scalps at 19.80. Interestingly, Bravo (147) is the next-best fast bowler on the tally.
Malinga is one of the four bowlers to have taken over 50 wickets in ODI World Cup. He entered the elite club during the World Cup clash against England last year, wherein he led Sri Lanka to a famous victory with his 4/34. He became the second Sri Lankan after Muttiah Muralitharan (68) to have attained the distinction. Still going strong, Slinga Malinga!
