Lasith Malinga has been consistent in taking wickets, contributing to his records, and it was only a matter of time, before he would break a few records at this rate. On Sunday, when Sri Lanka clashed with New Zealand, in a 3-day T20 international tournament, Lasith Malinga achieved the feat of highest wicket-taker in Twenty20 internationals, but his team succumbed in the 1st match to the Blackcaps.
Though, Sri Lanka started the first innings with Kusal Mendis (79out; 53b; 8X4, 2X6) leading from the start. However, the rest of the team collapsed without any significant contribution, just Niroshan Dickwella (33 out; 25b; 2X4) added 33 runs, almost at the end of the innings, with the likes of Dasun Shanaka (17 not out; 12b; 1X6) and Isuru Udana (15 not out; 3b; 2X6), Sri Lanka managed to finish the innings with a decent total of 174 after 20 overs.
Lasith Malinga did start the 2nd innings with his classy toe-crushing Yorkers and variations, and evidently got the wicket of Colin Munro for a golden duck, in the very first over. They kept the Kiwi’s under pressure for the first few overs, and eventually Martin Guptill also succumbed in the 4th over. The Blackcaps regained some hope, when Colin de Grandhomme and Ross Taylor started to build a promising partnership.
However, Lasith Malinga came back when NZ’s were easily riding towards a victory, scalping Grandhomme, and with it, breaking the highest wickets tally in Twenty20 internationals, previously reserved by Shahid Afridi. Afridi had held the record with 98 wickets from 99 matches, Malinga crossed the record with his 2nd wicket in the match, registering 99 wickets from 74 matches.
But Malinga could not hold his bowling spells till the end of the bargain, which resulted in Mitchel Santner and Daryl Mitchell pulling heroics at the penultimate moment to win the 1st game of the tournament. Sri Lanka will be facing New Zealand for the 2nd match of the series, on 3rd September, with the Kiwi’s leading the series by 1 point.
