Lasith Malinga – The God of Death in T20 cricket!

When Malinga was first picked for the MI, he was still a budding cricketer,yet to prove himself at International levels.

By Vinay Anand

When Lasith Malinga was first picked for the Mumbai Indians, he was still a budding cricketer, yet to prove himself at International levels. Today, he has blossomed into the most dreaded bowler in T20 cricket.

Malinga is a huge draw – be it his multi-hued, big curls, his sensational bowling action or his brand of yorkers that come like a death sentence for the batsmen.

Gone are the days when Malinga was considered an enigma for his inaccuracy. He has now evolved into a world class bowler – probably the No 1 bowler batsmen the world over would like avoid facing. His scorching yorkers, destructive pace, unplayable slower deliveries have caused stumps to fly spectacularly around.

Ask anyone in the Mumbai Indians camp and they will tell you “Slinga” Malinga is their biggest asset, after Sachin Tendulkar. A tally of 24 wickets in 10 IPL matches at an incredible strike rate of 9.7 is a vivid testimony to his destructive abilities as a bowler.

Tendulkar generally uses him only for a solitary over in the powerplay, availing the remaining three in the death overs or in one over spells. And each time Malinga comes in and does the job expected of him. For a short man, with a round-arm action, Malinga has a ferocious bouncer, keeping the batsmen on their toes at all points. Add the slower delivery and Yorkers, and Malinga is just perfect for T20. But, the one thing that makes him so difficult to play is the nagging consistency. It’s hard to fathom how easy he keeps at it. If ever there was a bowler tailor-made for T20, it is Malinga.

(Vinay Anand, 17, has an uncanny eye for detail. He revers cricket – looking beyond the glamour into the heart of the game where true passion, perseverance and grit meet. To him, there is no greater joy than coming closer to the sport while exploring its intricacies through his writing and treading ahead to establish himself as a writer and presenter)