Five times Malinga stole the show
Lasith Malinga, Sri Lanka's ace match-winner in global tournaments, may be about to bowl his final spells at an ICC event this week. ESPNcricinfo remembers five of his best big-tournament performances
Andrew Fidel Fernando
11-Jun-2017
Lasith Malinga has been Sri Lanka's most exciting limited-overs talent for a decade • Associated Press
Where Lasith Malinga had been something of a Sri Lankan secret until then,
this was the moment his searing yorkers sneaked beneath the bat of world
cricket's collective consciousness, and bowled it over. For the next seven
years, a multitude of toes would line up to be crushed, cartloads of
stumps would be splayed, and stadiums would be filled with blonde-tipped
wig-wearing acolytes of Malinga's round-arm heresy.
The match was basically already lost. South Africa needed 10 runs off six
overs, with five wickets in the tank. Mahela Jayawardene tossed the ball to
Malinga and told him: "We're buried here unless you do something." So he
did. He rolled his fingers over the fifth ball of his sixth over of the
day, and the slower ball - which in those days, was still 136kph - wangled
its way past Shaun Pollock's bat. Andrew Hall was then tricked into lobbing
up a catch next ball, off another slower one.
At the start of the following over, Malinga had returned to the fast stuff.
Jacques Kallis, perhaps wanting to cover the ball that had been swinging in
to the right hander, drove too far inside the line, and sent an outside
edge through to the keeper. Makhaya Ntini was almost just a prop in the
Malinga show. The ball seemed to phase through him and into the middle
stump. South Africa would go on to win the game, thanks to a fortunate edge
to third man, but not before Malinga threatened the wickets a couple more
times. One ball had whistled by so close to the woodwork, "If only the
stumps had hair" an observer had remarked.
In the early years of the IPL, no foreign player inspired as much devotion
from a section of Indian fans, as Malinga. His spells at the death had
acquired a legendary status, and in home games, would be delivered to
stadium-wide cries of "Ma-li-nga".
But on April 2, 2011, when Sri Lanka had come to town to contest the World
Cup final, there was no adulation for him. The Wankhede was not Malinga's
crowd that day. Trapping Virender Sehwag in front of the stumps second
ball, Malinga let out a roar as silence filled the stadium. A few overs
later, he took the outside edge of Mumbai's favourite son - Sachin
Tendulkar - and sprinted full tilt, arms spread, from the bowling crease to
square leg, wildly, hysterically joyful.
Despite the quality of Malinga's opening spell, Sri Lanka, of course, could
not capitalise. MS Dhoni would go on to provide that evening's most
memorable moment.
England may have been reigning World T20 champions, but Sri Lanka were
favourites for this particular tournament, and in the back hills of Kandy
that evening, Malinga was king.
On display were virtually all of Malinga's weapons, which at this stage of
his career, constituted a veritable arsenal. He got Luke Wright with a ball
that pitched on short-of-a-length and left the right hander slightly - one
of his favoured new-ball deliveries at the time. The next victim was Jonny
Bairstow, who didn't spot the slower ball, and whacked it almost into the
stratosphere, but could get no distance on the shot - the ball eventually
caught at mid off. Next ball, Alex Hales was duped by another slower one,
which struck his pad in front of the stumps.
While those three early wickets could be attributed to Malinga's wit, it
was pure ability that brought the next two. Jos Buttler could not control a
menacing bouncer in Malinga's second spell, and sent a catch to long leg.
And seeing Samit Patel back away to make room, Malinga took aim at the off
stump and sent it cartwheeling with a fast full toss. That 5 for 31 remains
his best return in T20 internationals.
When Sri Lanka made only 138 in their innings, it seemed almost
inconceivable New Zealand would be put under any sort of strain, but thanks
largely to Malinga, the match would turn out to be a thriller. New Zealand
had not, at the time, had a great record against Malinga, and that would
continue, for one more game at least.
This time it was his pace that they struggled to parse. In the ninth over,
Kane Williamson actually attempted to duck a ball that wound up hitting him
on the thigh, in front of the stumps. Eleven overs later, another slower
ball had Daniel Vettori lbw. Then the McCullum brothers were removed in the
space of three Malinga deliveries, Brendon playing too early at another
slower ball, which took out his off stump, before Nathan was nailed in front
of the wickets with a searing, swinging fast one.
Had Sri Lanka conserved their review to overturn a not out decision when
Malinga hit Southee in front of the stumps in the 34th over, they might
even have gone on to win the match. Instead New Zealand survived Malinga's
final bursts to limp home with a wicket to spare.
Figures of no wickets for 27 may not sound like much, but make no mistake, the 2014
World T20 final was one of Malinga's finest cricketing moments. Though
sometimes criticised at home for the eagerness with which he turns up at
each IPL, Malinga's riposte, on this occasion, was to harness the knowledge
he had gained in five IPL seasons for Sri Lanka's benefit. Having been made
captain mid-way through this campaign, Malinga had been instrumental in
devising the bowling plan that muzzled India's batsmen.
The thinking was this: few India batsmen played the scoop or lap scoop, and
relied instead on more traditional cricketing strokes for their death-over
runs. As a result, Malinga contended, Sri Lanka would be well-served by the
yorker landed about half-a-metre outside off stump - too wide for the likes
of Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni to whip through leg, but not quite wide enough
to flay through a packed offside. While Malinga himself was virtually
inch-perfect in the execution of this plan, Nuwan Kulasekara went a little
wider than his partner, but was nevertheless successful.
Much was said about Yuvraj Singh's tortured innings in that game, but even
when MS Dhoni joined a well-set Virat Kohli at the crease, the two men
could muster no more than 11 runs off the final 11 balls of the innings.
And perhaps the most incredible thing about that plan of attack was that it
was so unlike Malinga. He was a bowler seemingly defined by his uniqueness
and his blockbuster spells. But it was this humdrum, low-octane strategy
that delivered him the greatest prize of his career. Malinga didn't blast
India out; he outwitted them.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo's Sri Lanka correspondent. @andrewffernando