VIDEO | Lasith Malinga recreates 2007 WC heroics claiming four wickets in four balls against New Zealand

09/06/2019

Jeez this was for real! The Slinga Malinga is still firing on all cylinders like the way he used to all those years and how beautifully those yorkers are coming up. Today, he recreated his 2007 World Cup heroics by dismissing four Kiwi batsmen in four deliveries in the third T20 in Colombo.

Malinga, the epitome of everything excellent about T20 bowling, held the record of dismissing four wickets in four balls in the 2007 World Cup. South Africa needed four to win with five wickets in hand and Malinga’s spell almost ended all hopes before South Africa barely managed to win the game. If that was unfinished business, the old man showed what he has got with a kind of display that would take anyone's breath away.

After the batsmen failed to put up a big score on the board - giving a target of just 126 - the onus was on Sri Lankan bowlers to stand up to the occasion. Leading from the front, putting the baggage of a lethargic body behind, Malinga bowled one of the menacing overs in T20 history by dismissing four batsmen in consecutive deliveries without giving away a single run.

It all started with a 140-kph yorker to flat-foot Colin Munro and the latter, trying to whip his bat around, was left clueless as the ball disturbed his furniture to make him Malinga’s first victim of the evening. On the very next ball, Malinga’s inswinger hit Hamish Rutherford on his pads and although the umpire wasn’t convinced, the pacer went upstairs to overturn the decision for his side.

Malinga was on a roll when Colin de Grandhomme joined Tim Seifert in the middle and the right-handers' time on the field remained the most forgettable one-ball stay in the middle. After the ball just ripped away from him after initially showing signs of moving in, de Grandhomme suffered the wrath of playing to the wrong line, thus gifting the Lankan pace spearhead a T20 hat-trick.

If one would have thought that was the end of the carnage, Malinga went one step forward to catch Ross Taylor plumb in front to make it four in four for him. It was the second time he achieved the same feat after his four-on-four feat against the South Africans 12 years ago.