'You have to be match-winners' - Lasith Malinga tells younger Sri Lankan bowlers
Lasith Malinga, who donned the Sri Lankan colours in ODI cricket for one last time on Friday, advised the next set of bowlers to push themselves to be match-winners for Sri Lanka. Malinga produced a fine spell of three for 38 in his farewell ODI as Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 91 runs.
Before leaving the ODI circuit, slinga-Malinga had one tip to leave for the batch of bowlers waiting to follow in his footsteps. He called on them to turn up their game to be match-winners like himself of Chaminda Vaas.
"I tried my best all through my career. I hope all the young bowlers do this as well. Because just surviving in cricket, I don't think anyone can go far. You have to be a match-winner," Malinga said at the presentation ceremony, reported Cricbuzz.
Malinga appealed to the board in-charge of Sri Lankan cricket to carefully look after the maturing crop of bowlers. He put his weight firmly behind their talents.
"That's what I'm looking forward to in the future. These young bowlers have to get match winning performances and people have to tell that's a match winning bowler. We have a couple of guys, they have the ability, we have to look after them," he said.
Earlier in the evening, the 35-year-old put on a show for his adoring home fans in Colombo. Set a stiff 315 to win, Bangladesh were blown away by two iconic Malinga dismissals — toe-crushing yorkers that left opposition skipper Tamim Iqbal on the floor, and Soumya Sarkar’s stumps flying. He then returned late in the game to seal his side’s win with a slower ball that foxed tailender Mustafizur Rahman. Bangladesh were bundled out for 223, and Malinga’s figures read 9.4-2-38-3. A fitting end to a legendary career.
"I've played the last 15 years for Sri Lanka. Really an honour to play and really happy to play for these people and for all the crowd that's been behind me. I feel this is the time I have to move on because we have to build for the 2023 World Cup and that's why I realised, okay, my time is up, I have to go," Malinga added.
With 338 ODI wickets, Malinga finished as 9th in the all-time wicket-takers in ODI history.
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