Not too long ago, an image of a shirtless Lasith Malinga in Sri Lanka’s dressing room, was circulating on social media, with fans engaging in enthusiastic… let’s call it discussion, on what a professional sportsman’s body should look like. The topic of fitness has been a hot one, especially with regards to the Sri Lankan Cricket team and the opportunity to make fun of Malinga’s rotund midsection was not one to miss out on.
But Malinga, in true Malinga style, showed, not for the first time, that all that talk about fitness and six packs did not matter…. Not quite, but Malinga proved that a perfect physique does not assure success and that such things as skill and game awareness matter more than being able to bowl 10 overs on the trot, without having to catch your breath.
Smells like team spirit – Headingly 2019
A chase of 400+ beckoned if England batted first. Headingly provided the perfect pitch for it, or so we thought. No more….
There is no better proof to this than the way he dismissed Jos Buttler at Leeds, on the way to leading Sri Lanka to a magnificent upset against one of the tournament favorites and World No. 1 (at the time) ranked team.
When Buttler joined Ben Stokes in the middle, England were still clear favourites to get home, needing 106 off 117 balls, with 6 wickets in hand. Sri Lanka may be a team that has struggled to find a man to be their ‘finisher’ at number 6 but England has had no such issues of late. Buttler has 4 hundreds and 10 half centuries batting at number 6, all but one of those half centuries have come in the last 4 years. It wouldn’t be misleading to say that he is now one of the best finishers in the game, if not THE BEST.
Given the above, it was essential that Sri Lanka dismissed Buttler, if they had any hope of winning the game. As luck would have it, Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne had held Malinga back just enough early on, that he could have him bowl a 3-over spell just when England seemed to be running away with things. Malinga had dismissed Joe Root in the first over of his spell but when he was faced with Buttler, the field was distinctly different.
Speaking exclusively to ThePapare.com, Malinga had this to say about setting up the man who could have taken the game away from Sri Lanka,
“I have played a lot of cricket with him (Buttler). I remember the games I’ve played and I always trust my skill. Because I know what I can do and trust my abilities, if I feel like I should try something, I do it. At that time, I had to figure out how to get him out. The ball was old and with the wicket being slow, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get him to nick to slip. So, I brought the man at slip to a catching position and gave him the option of hitting across the line. I think my trap worked. In that way, when you’re playing, you have to set a trap. We say that you need to show (the batsman) the boundary and get him to play that boundary shot. That’s how you learn to handle a game. Those are things only those in the middle know about, but someone watching the game would have criticized me if I gave away the boundary. I am always willing to take that risk, when setting a trap.”
Malinga, with the go ahead of his skipper, brought the man from slip to a very close in mid-on, a catching option as well as a deterrent to Buttler going straight down the ground. Buttler took the fielder on, going straight as Malinga angled one towards his pads with the first ball of the 33rdover. He only managed to chip the ball, and perhaps on a different day, he’d have hit it straight at the catcher Kusal Mendis. He was lucky on that occasion, but the next time Malinga pitched the ball up, Buttler did not risk the shot down the ground. He went with the shot across the line – just as Sri Lanka had hoped – and missed a straight one.
Read: It’s not about Malinga’s six pack, it’s about his skill – Mahela
There are only two steps in Lasith Malinga’s handbook on how to be a successful fast bowler.
- Develop your skills
- Analyze the game
His performance in the World Cup so far has perfectly illustrated those two steps. When Malinga broke into the international scene, he was unlike anything that the world had seen before. He made the ball do things batsmen weren’t accustomed to seeing – from his release point, to the unusual dip he produced, his greatest strength was his unorthodoxy. But as the likes of Ajantha Mendis found out in the most brutal fashion, unorthodoxy only goes so far.
Malinga was born with a talent, developed it into a skill and then worked on that skill until he perfected it. The yorker, the dipping low full-toss, the slow bouncer, the cutter, still produce the results for Malinga. Although he’s been playing for 15 years now, he still manages to surprise even the best batsmen.
“As a bowler, you need to have skill. Skill is the 1st (priority). Then you need to analyze the game. Those two things, you have to improve on as soon as you can. If someone can analyze the game, but he doesn’t have the skill, he can’t do anything. The first thing is, he needs to improve his skill and gain confidence. In the last couple of years, I built my variations and gained in confidence. If someone has the skill, then after that they can learn the game. It doesn’t matter if you analyze the game, or read the game well, if you don’t have the skill to execute that (the plans), then he’ll struggle.” (ICC)
So go on then, keep talking about his big belly, his creaky knees and the silver flecks in his beard, knowing Malinga, it’s exactly what he wants, it’s probably all another big trap.
