Sri Lanka’s bowling spearhead Lasith Malinga has retired from ODI cricket after playing the first ODI against Bangladesh at R. Premadasa Stadium in the three-match series on July 26.
Malinga gave Sri Lanka early wickets by sending openers Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar back to the pavilion. Malinga finished his last match with 3/38 and remained unbeaten on 6. The veteran bowler got a perfect farewell as Sri Lanka tamed Bangladesh by 91 runs.
The unorthodox pacer retired from Test cricket long back in 2010. The 35-year-old surpassed Indian spinner Anil Kumble’s tally of 337 wickets after he amassed 338 wickets to move ninth on the highest ODI wicket-takers list.
Malinga took 13 wickets in the recently concluded World Cup, his 4/43 against England helped his side to win the game by 20 runs.
He also ended up being the third most World Cup wicket-taker with 56 wickets as he surpassed his compatriot Chaminda Vaas and Wasim Akram to reach the mark.
However, the Mumbai Indians star bowler will continue to play T20I’s at least till the 2020 T20 World Cup. So let us go back to some of the best moments the Yorker King has created for us to cherish.
5. 6/38 vs Kenya (2011 World Cup)
Malinga is the only player to claim two world-cup hat-tricks and three overall in ODI cricket. His second one came against Kenya in the Group A fixture of 2011 WC.
After Kenya won the toss and decided to bat first, Sri Lanka restricted them for 142 all out. It was Malinga’s excellent spell of 6/38 that crumbled the African nation’s batting unit.
He cleaned the stumps four times and got two lbw’s using all his mighty yorkers that crunched the batsmen’s toe.
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In the final ball of the 42nd over Lasith Malinga trapped Tanmay Mishra for lbw. And from his next over’s first two deliveries he got back to back wickets of Peter Ngondo and Shem Ngoche. He registered his second World Cup hat-trick.
Sri Lanka chased the target in 18.4 overs to win their second consecutive game of that tournament.
4. 4/43 vs England (2019 World Cup)
In a tournament where Sri Lanka looked the most unfancied side and when they faced the host England going as underdogs.
The island nation shocked the entire cricket world as stunned England to win a 20-run match at Headingly, Leeds.
Sri Lanka posted a modest total of 232 which looked very tough to defend against a dangerous batting line-up of England.
Lasith Malinga took the responsibility on his shoulders and turned the game in his team’s favour using his skills and experience. He dismissed the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Jos Buttler.
Malinga could have grabbed another fifer if Kushal Mendis had not missed the catch of Ben Stokes in the 45th over.
3. 5/44 vs England (2018 2nd ODI)
In the second ODI match between England and Sri Lanka at Dambulla Malinga picked another five-wicket haul of his career.
It was a special one for Malinga as he completed his 500 International wickets in his career when he bowled Moeen Ali to claim him as his 500th wicket.
Malinga also denied Eoin Morgan a century as he caught him off his own bowling on 92 just a ball before dismissing Ali.
Malinga ended his spell with 10-1-44-5, however, Sri Lanka eventually lost the match by 31 runs through the Duckworth Lewis method.
2. 56 vs Australia (2010 1st ODI)
Malinga who is well known for dismantling yorkers and any captain’s choice when wickets are most required. But when Sri Lanka toured to Australia back in 2010, everyone witnessed a new side of Malinga.
In the 1st ODI at MCG Sri Lanka had to chase the target of 240 to win. Their batting had slipped to 107/8 after 25.2 overs and Malinga came to bat alongside Angelo Matthews who was batting at 11. The pair stitched a 132-run partnership for the ninth wicket to create a new record in cricket history which is yet to be broken.
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Malinga smashed his maiden fifty off 56 runs from 48 balls laced with six fours and a couple of sixes. Malinga failed to hit the winning runs as he got run out by Steven Smith at the non-striker’s end.
But Muttiah Muralitharan completed his job and took Sri Lanka to a one-wicket victory.
1. 4/54 vs South Africa (2007 World Cup Super Eights)
In the super eight stage of the 2007 World Cup South Africa were chasing a low score of 210 and were in a position of 206/5 at 44.4 overs. Then Lasith Malinga bowled a thriller spell as he dismissed Shaun Pollock and Andrew Hall in two successive deliveries.
When he came to bowl his next over the opposition still had 3 wickets in hand. South Africa needed just 3 runs off 24 balls to win with Jacques Kallis batting at 86.
Malinga found the outside edge of Kallis to claim the first hat-trick of his career. Malinga created history in ODI cricket picking four wickets in four balls after he targeted the middle stump of Makhaya Ntini.
However, Malinga’s efforts went in vain as Robin Peterson managed to find a boundary to take the Proteas over the victory line with one wicket.