Lasith Malinga's top ten bowling spells

Lasith Malinga, who was born on August 28, 1983, undoubtedly ranks as one of the best limited overs’ fast bowlers to have played over the last decade. Possessing a distinctively slingy round-arm action, his ability to bowl yorkers at will has made him an invaluable possession in the shorter formats of the game. He also has a sharp bouncer that is extremely difficult to pick up, because of his low-arm action, and has developed a cunning slower ball, which has confounded the best of batsmen, to his repertoire over time. He has been Sri Lanka’s go-to fast bowler irrespective of the format since the retirement of Chaminda Vaas and has remarkably managed to live up to the expectations of his captains almost every time. Although Malinga has built a fearsome reputation largely due to his exploits in One Day International and T20 cricket, he has more than a decent record in Test cricket, too. He took 101 wickets from his 30 Tests, but injuries eventually took a toll on his body, forcing him to retire from Test cricket in 2011 in order to prolong his career. On the occasion of his 31st birthday, here are Malinga’s 10 best bowling spells:

#10 1/5 (Super Over) v New Zealand in Pallekele, Sri Lanka (2012)

Lasith Malinga’s 1/5 v New Zealand in the 2012 World T20 deserves a place in his top 10 performances, because of the fact that it came in a Super Over. Sri Lanka batted first in the Super Over and set New Zealand a target of 14 for victory. Chasing 14 in an over against most bowlers would not be out of the question, but, with Malinga running in to bowl, it’s almost impossible to do so.

Despite being up against the might of Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor, he conceded just 5 runs from his quota of 6 deliveries while also getting the wicket of Guptill.

#9 5/31 v England in Pallekele, Sri Lanka (2012)

Given his excellence in T20 cricket across the world, it’s a little bit surprising that Malinga has taken just a single 5-wicket haul in his T20 international career. The lone instance when he did so, though, was very important as it helped Sri Lanka beat England by 19 runs in the group stages of the 2012 World T20 and progress further in the tournament. England, in their pursuit of 169, were facing an uphill battle right from the outset as Malinga took the sting out of their run chase with 3 top-order wickets.

Luke Wright, Alex Hales and Jonny Bairstow all fell for single-digit scores to the Sri Lankan, leaving the Three Lions precariously placed at 18/3. Samit Patel led the recovery with an innings of 67 off 48 balls, raising expectations of a miraculous England victory. Their hopes, though, were shortlived; Malinga dismissed both Patel and Jos Buttler in his latter spell and sealed a semi-final spot for Sri Lanka.

#8 3/35 v Australia in Colombo, Sri Lanka (2011)

Lasith Malinga’s 3/35 against Australia in 2011 holds special significance as, in the process, he became the first bowler to take three hat-tricks in the history of ODI cricket.

In the 45th over of the Australian innings, he got rid of Mitchell Johnson, John Hastings and Xavier Doherty off successive deliveries with yorkers so perfectly executed that batsmen much better than those three would have found difficult negotiating them.

Australia were consequently bowled out for a total of 211. Sri Lanka managed to chase the target with 3 overs to spare, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Australia from celebrating a 3-2 series victory.

#7 5/28 v Australia in Hambantota, Sri Lanka (2011)

Sri Lanka had lost the first two ODIs of the 5-match series, making it imperative for the Lankans to bounce back strongly in the 3rd ODI. Defending 286 for victory, the entire Sri Lankan bowling unit did a terrific job with Malinga being the stand-out bowler. The 31-year-old dismissed Shane Watson in his initial spell before dismissing the well-set pair of Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey in quick successions. He, then, came back at the end to knock over Xavier Doherty and Doug Bollinger cheaply and gave Sri Lanka a comprehensive victory.

#6 0/27 v India in Mirpur, Dhaka (2014)

Malinga’s bowling figures of 0/27 from 4 overs in the 2014 World T20 final against India, on the face of it, are nothing exceptional, but it’s the context of his last 2 overs, in particular, that make his efforts praiseworthy.

Going into the final of the World T20, Sri Lanka had a notorious record of having finished as runners-up in all of their last 4 finals of ICC events. While finishing 2nd in an ICC tournament is no bad thing, the Island nation’s repeated failure to get across the finishing line gave a feeling that it was a mental hurdle they weren’t capable of overcoming. Until the 17th over of the Indian innings, it looked like Sri Lanka would fall short yet again with Virat Kohli well set at 72 off 52 balls and looking to accelerate in the final 3 overs of the innings.

Malinga, himself, had something to prove, as the feeling was that the Indian batsmen had the measure of him having meted out severe punishment to him on several occasions in the past. Conceding 18 runs off his first 2 overs gave even more credence to that notion, but Malinga came roaring back at his critics as he gave away just 9 runs from his final 2 overs, thereby restricting India to a below par score of 130. He, along with Nuwan Kulasekara, had come up with a strategy of bowling wide yorkers, and it worked wonders. It helped Sri Lanka go on to secure a comfortable 6-wicket victory and finally break their jinx of losing in the final.

#5 5/34 v Pakistan in Dambulla, Sri Lanka (2010)

Sri Lanka have enjoyed a huge advantage over other teams in limited-overs cricket due to the presence of Malinga in their ranks. Numerous examples of the opposition seemingly being in a dominant position only for Malinga to come back into the attack and tilt the match in Sri Lanka’s favour spring to mind.

In the first game of the Asia Cup in 2010, Sri Lanka had racked up a moderate total of 242 on the board. Pakistan were in deep trouble early in their run chase at 4/32, but Shahid Afridi’s sparkling century meant that they were in pole position to get off to a winning start in the tournament. Skipper Kumar Sangakkara turned to Malinga, Lanka’s saviour, once again, and he duly delivered by finishing the last 3 wickets in a space of 9 runs to finish with match-winning figures of 10-0-34-5.

#4 5/50 vs. India in Galle, Sri Lanka (2010)

Lasith Malinga will remember this Test match against India for more reasons than one. Not only was it Muttiah Muralitharan’s final ever Test match, one in which he took his 800th Test wicket, but also the Test where Malinga took 5/50 in the 2nd innings of what was his first Test in nearly 3 years to help give the Sri Lankan spin maestro a winning send-off in Tests.

India had posted 276 in their 1st innings in reply to the 520/8 made by Sri Lanka and were made to follow on by the Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara. On a pitch that was getting flatter as the Test match progressed, the Indians would have been confident of saving the Test against a tiring Sri Lankan attack. But Malinga dashed their hopes as he took the prized top-order wickets of Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, to give the Island nation a memorable 10-wicket victory.

#3 4/49 v Australia in Melbourne, Australia (2012)

There have not been too many occasions when Lasith Malinga has been made to feel ordinary, but the Commonwealth Bank ODI series in Australia was one such occasion. In Sri Lanka’s 2nd last group match against India, Virat Kohli took Malinga to the cleaners and helped India chase 320 in 36.4 overs to give his team an all-important bonus point. Malinga, who leaked 96 runs from 7.4 overs, had never been treated with such disdain ever before, and his confidence, as a result, would have been completely shattered.

Malinga didn’t take long to bounce back, though, as he took 4/49 against Australia in a must-win encounter while defending a modest target of 239 from 50 overs. He took the crucial wickets of David Warner and Shane Watson, thereby helping Sri Lanka pull off a nail-biter by 9 runs and knocking India out of the tournament.

#2 6/7 v Perth Scorchers in Perth, Australia (2012)

When Lasith Malinga signed for Big Bash League (BBL) franchise Melbourne Stars in 2012, he was expected to make an immediate impact given his enormous reputation as a T20 bowler. Malinga, being the champion bowler that he is, didn’t take long to do justice to that reputation. Perth Scorchers were unfortunately on the receiving end of the pacer’s brilliance; they were bundled out for 69 in 15.2 overs due to Malinga’s breathtaking spell of 4-1-7-6 in just his 2nd game for the franchise. The bowler’s figures of 6/7, which helped the Stars register an easy victory, are the 2nd best bowling figures in the history of T20 cricket.

#1 4/54 v South Africa in Guyana, West Indies (2007)

South Africa had no business of losing this 50-over World Cup Super Eight encounter against Sri Lanka in the Caribbean in 2007. Yet they were almost on the verge of doing so, courtesy of the genius of Lasith Malinga.

The South Africans, in their run chase of 210 from 50 overs, were cruising to a comfortable victory, needing a mere 4 runs from 32 deliveries with 5 wickets in hand. That was when Malinga weaved his magic as he dismissed Shaun Pollock, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini off 4 successive deliveries and became the first bowler ever to take 4 wickets in 4 balls in international cricket.

The South African team, who seemed in total despair after Malinga’s heroics, somehow hung on by the skin of their teeth to complete a one-wicket victory in the 48th over, thereby preventing what would have been one of the greatest comebacks in cricketing history.