Srilankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga is all set To quit from 50-Over cricket after the first game of three-match ODI series against Bangladesh on July 26. Dimuth Karunaratne has confirmed Malinga’s retirement from ODI’s on July 22nd.
“He is going to play the first match. After that, he is retiring. That’s what he said to me. I don’t know what he said for the selectors but for me, he said he is playing only one match,” – Karunaratne said.
Malinga is the third-highest wicket-taker in ODI’s for Sri Lanka with 335 wickets in 225 matches. He is in 10th position in the overall wicket-takers list and needs just 3 scalps to get ahead of Anil Kumble’s 337.
His last ODI at R Premadasa stadium in Colombo will also give him the opportunity to take his wickets tally at the venue.
Malinga is the only bowler to have three ODI hat-tricks, two of them were from the World Cups. In the 2007 edition of the marquee event, he picked up four wickets in consecutive balls in super eight fixtures against South Africa in Guyana.
It was his fourth World Cup where he took 13 wickets in seven matches and was the teams leading wicket-tacker at the event. In the match against England, his 4/43 figures had made them win the game, which had created a hope for the team to be in the Semi-finals of the World Cup.
Malinga is expected to continue playing in the shorter format until the next edition of the tournament, which will be played in Australia next year. In 2011, he had retired from Test cricket, finishing with 101 wickets from 30 matches.
