Colombo: Veteran Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga is calling it quits on Friday. He will be laying his last ODI against Bangladesh in the first game of the three-match ODI series.
Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne wished the best to Malinga in a pre-match interview. He added that his team wanted to win the match as a tribute to the legendary pacer.
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35-year old Lasith Malinga is Sri Lanka’s third-highest wicket-taker in ODIs. He has scalped 335 wickets from 225 matches – only behind Chaminda Vaas (399) and Muttiah Muralitharan (523). He is 10th on the overall list and needs three more wickets to overhaul Anil Kumble’s tally of 337. His farewell ODI at the R Premadasa Stadium will also give him the opportunity to complete 50 ODI wickets at the venue.
Malinga is known as one of the most dangerous bowlers of the world with is known for his slingy action and on-point Yorkers. Apart from his skills with new balls, he also mastered the art of death bowling.
He’s the only bowler to have three ODI hat-tricks, two of which came in World Cups. In the 2007 edition of the marquee event, he picked up four wickets in consecutive balls in the Super Eight fixture against South Africa in Guyana – the only such instance of this happening in ODIs.
With 56 scalps from 29 games, Lasith Malinga is the third-highest wicket-taker in World Cup history. He is only behind Australia’s Glenn McGrath (71) and fellow Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan (68).
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