Lasith Malinga was the pace spearhead in the golden years for Sri Lanka cricket (File Photo)Lasith Malinga is set to bow out of the ODI format after Friday’s match against Bangladesh, pulling down the curtains on the career of one of the most iconic bowlers of the 21st century. For Sri Lanka, Malinga’s retirement from the game means the end of one of the last remaining links to a different era for them, when the Lankan brand of cricket was feared all over.
It’s official.
Lasith Malinga will retire from ODI cricket after Sri Lanka’s game against Bangladesh in Colombo this Friday.
A great of ODI cricket 👏 👏 pic.twitter.com/qODwoQMHZe
— ICC (@ICC) July 23, 2019
Malinga’s bowling was a vital element of Sri Lanka’s most successful phase in international cricket. While the island nation may have announced themselves on the world stage in the 1990s, most of their glories were in the years between 2007 and 2014 – a period when Malinga was in his pomp.
During this time, a time when one of the biggest fears for batsmen the world over would be Malinga’s toe-crunching yorkers and his flying mop of dazzling hair, Sri Lanka reached the finals of both the 2007 World Cup and the 2011 World Cup. They were also consecutive runners-up in the 2009 and the 2012 T20 World Cups, finally winning the 2014 edition.
Malinga goes out of the ODI format as Sri Lanka’s third-highest wicket-taker, with 335 wickets in 219 innings. He made his ODI debut in 2004. His wickets have come at an average of 29.02 and a strike rate of 32.4. He has 11 four-wicket hauls and 8 five-wicket hauls. No bowler has picked more wickets in the ODI format in such a span.
Muttiah Muralitharan (523) and Chaminda Vaas (399) are the only Sri Lankans to have taken more wickets than Malinga in ODIs.
Malinga’s strike rate, or the frequency with which he picked up wickets, was his biggest weapon. His strike rate is the second-best strike rate after Ajantha Mendis (27.3) in Sri Lanka’s ODI cricket history.
Malinga is the first to take two World Cup hat-tricks and the first to take three ODI hat-tricks. He is also the only bowler to take four wickets in four consecutive balls.
Who’ll ever forget the time Malinga took four wickets in four balls against South Africa in the 2007 @cricketworldcup!?
Is it your favourite memory of Malinga in ODI cricket? pic.twitter.com/WO0SPKFCij
— ICC (@ICC) July 23, 2019
In the all-time ODI lists, Malinga is the tenth-highest wicket-taker and the seventh-highest amongst fast bowlers. He has two wickets less than Anil Kumble (337 ODI wickets). If Malinga can take two or more wickets in his final ODI on Friday, he will bow out as the ninth highest wicket-taker of all time.
In later years, Malinga often looked to have been left with too much to do, even if he looked capable enough to win matches single-handedly. Even in the 2019 World Cup, after years of having launched several comebacks and having earned massive unpopularity with his country’s cricket administration – it was the 35-year-old Malinga who finished as Sri Lanka’s highest wicket-taker.
“Nuwan Kulasekara’s economical bowling from the other end helped me to get wicket-taking bowler tag,” Malinga said on the eve of Kulasekara’s retirement. This statement was not only a reminder of the times when Sri Lanka had a potent pace attack but was also revealing of how selflessly Malinga has devoted himself to the Lankan cause over the last decade and a half.
