Facing Lasith Malinga has to be among the toughest challenges for a batsman in contemporary cricket. This unique bowler makes compelling viewing as he unleashes his thunderbolts.
Picture this as a batsman. The older ball starts to reverse swing. And you carefully watch ball at the point of release. When it reverses, the ball swings towards the shiny side and you can pick this delivery
from the hand.
Capable batsmen then make the necessary adjustments. When the arm is higher, this can be done with relative ease.
However, it's virtually impossible to spot the shiny side from Malinga's low sling-arm action. In fact, when Malinga is about to let the delivery go, one side of the ball actually points to the ground
and the other is covered by the bowler's fingers.
This is what makes Malinga so dangerous. Struggling to decipher his swing, the batsman is forced to make hurried movements after the ball has already started its course. Add to all this, Malinga's velocity.
The batsman has little time.
Often, the sphere crashes into the stumps or strikes the pads. Then, there are times when the batsmen play for the incoming delivery and the ball darts away. Or they play for reverse swing and the ball
travels straight through or moves a lot lesser than they expect.
And then, when the batsmen, often crouching, seek to spot and then dig out the sizzling, swinging yorkers – their eye level as Malinga releases from just above his right shoulder is low – they are confronted with a vicious short-pitched delivery.
This is precisely why so many batsmen are struck on the body by Malinga's lifting deliveries. The action happens in a flash. The 26-year-old paceman from Galle reached yet another milestone of his dramatic but injury-hit career when he scalped his 100th ODI batsman at the Rangiri Stadium, here, on Friday.
Malinga is a feared bowler in the abbreviated form of the game. In 68 ODIs, he has 102 wickets at 27.37. Apart from his strikes, he can make scoring hard.
Malinga, in fact, completed his 100 Test wickets in the match against India at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium; the Test preceded the ongoing Micromax ODI tri-series.
Despite battling fitness concerns – a knee injury has bothered him in particular - Malinga has 101 wickets in 30 Tests at 33.15. His strike-rate of 51.5 is creditable.
Sri Lanka will need Malinga's firepower, especially after the retirement of the phenomenal Muttiah Muralitharan from Tests. A Test career that began down under in 2004 – Malinga impressed in
Australia with 10 wickets at 26.40 in two Tests – could assume greater significance if the fiery paceman's body holds. This man is a match-winner. Malinga's five for 50 in the Indian second innings at Galle in the recently concluded Test series had most of the essential elements – speed, swing, bounce and precision.
He mixes his length extremely well; the batsman is often caught at the crease. Indeed, Malinga has matured with experience, is reading the batsmen better.
In the one-dayer, he has the weapons to strike at any stage of the innings. The hostile Malinga can hurt the opposition with the new ball, let rip in the middle overs, and get the ball to reverse at the death. He was exceptional during the 2007 ICC World Cup in the Caribbean.
With his toe-crushers on target, Malinga dismissed 18 batsmen at just 15.77.
Unlike most menacing fast bowlers, he smiles. Malinga is a blithe spirit who loves sunshine and laughter. But then, as the batsmen will tell you, appearances can be deceptive.
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