Two World Cup hattricks on the Malinga CV makes him special and is why a battle of sharp-edged pace is expected to explode in Khettarama on Saturday night. This is when Sri Lanka tackle World Cup title-holders Australia in what should be one of the major contests of this year’s tournament.
It sort of blows a hole in the "spin is king" theory this tournament as there have been two hattricks in 24 hours of high explosive bowling with Kemar Roach flattening the bottom end of The Netherland innings in such a way it left no one in doubt who played a major role in that victory.
So far, Australia have used their pace as a weapon to force the opposition into buckling at the knees and it has worked. Whether they will have the same impact against Sri Lanka on what is expected to be another flat pitch is a matter at Premadasa Stadium is a question of firing the ball in the right areas.
For example, after a back injury kept him out of the side in the first two games, including the important one against Pakistan, it didn’t take goldilocks Malinga long to wind up blow away the Kenyans here on Tuesday as Sri Lanka sauntered to a comfortable nine-wickets victory. He had to wait though until 32nd over when he was brought back to do the job the so-called big-named spinners, Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis had largely failed to do. That is to take wickets.
Up to that, point Kenyan brothers Collins and David Obuya had done a fairly solid job of pulling the innings together and a possible Kenyan total of 200 loomed. Not a challenging one it would be admitted, but at least keep the big crowd entertained for as long as possible.
Collins Obuya at least looked the part of a World Cup batsman and put together some stylish strokes and following his dismissal for steady 52 with the score at 102. When the experienced veteran Steve Tikolo followed for seven, cutting an Angelo Mathews delivery to Tillakaratne Dilshan in what was little more than catching practice, the innings imploded as would any soggy paper bag when given a solid punch.
Anyone who watched Roach's demolition of The Netherlands on Monday at Kotla in New Delhi could not but have noticed how he delivered the ball, fast and straight and aimed to scythe in at pace. This is the way Shoaib Akhtar bowled Mahela Jayawardene on Saturday with a delivery clocked at 149 kph.
Now Malinga aka Deadly Goldilocks did a similar trick. This time he was on the winning side. Four years ago, at Providence, Guyana, he took out Shaun Pollock, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini. South Africa though scraped through to win by one wicket. They were all the same deliveries, swift, straight and oh so very deadly.
Against Kenya, he went for 20 in his first four overs and the thought was he was bowling perhaps too fast at first before getting his rhythm going, such as it is. He did have Seren Waters lbw for three in his second over, then delivered a few loose ones, including a couple of wides before settling in his familiar shock troop fashion.
Bowling from the Khettarama (south) end of the reshaped venue, he was on target and the pace was plus 140 kph most of the time. It was aggressive and any Australian watching would have been left wondering just how true have been the stories of the back injury which have plagued the bowler for the past four years.
Initially, the thought was he would be given more time to recover from the worrying recurring back problem and this was the subtle hint on Monday. When the team list was released and his name was included instead of Thisara Perera, the indication is that Malinga was ready to fire off his sidewinder style deliveries.
The way he ripped the bottom section of the Kenya innings apart was as awe-inspiring as it gets for the Sri Lankans, with Tanmay Mishra, Peter Ongongo, Shem Ngoche and Elijah Otieno all falling in the space of five deliveries, which included the hattrick.
Kumar Sangakkara suggested how Sri Lanka's response of knocking off the victory target for the loss of one wicket explained the team had recovered well from Saturday' 11 runs defeat by Pakistan.
Upal Tharanga and Sangakkara added 74 in an unbroken partnership in a matter of 10.2 overs to wrap up the game in easy fashion for an early finish. This was after the expected dismissal of Dilshan, cutting too close to his body when on 44. Against faster, more accurate bowling he is going face in other games in this tournament, his technique is being fund out.
The major question facing Sangakkara, the selectors and the team’s management is whether they can learn from the seventh defeat by Pakistan at the Khettarama venue. For one thing, the hope is that Lasith Malinga will have recovered enough to offer the team that incisive penetrative edge to the attack needed to fire at opposing sides.
Sangakkara talked about learning from the positives of the Pakistan defeat while another colleague said that as Sri Lanka were missing "four" players, it needed to be remembered it was not the "full team". It was a tongue-in-cheek comment laced with the irony of how the team that played Pakistan was perhaps missing – the injured Malinga apart – players who could have contributed to winning the match.
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