Lasith Malinga is the greatest bowler in the history of the Indian Premier League. He had picked up 170 wickets in 122 matches, which is the highest among the list of wicket-takers in the history of IPL.
The Sri Lankan legend had been phenomenal from the beginning for his franchise Mumbai Indians. He got famous for his weird but stylish haircut and the laser-sharp Yorker from which he was later renowned as ‘Yorker King’. Check here how Yorkers in cricket impact the results of the games!
He made his debut for his only IPL team Mumbai Indians, in the year 2009. He bagged a purple cap in 2011 for his exceptional performance of 28 wickets in just 16 matches.
Lasith Malinga has ruled the IPL for a couple of seasons; he has taken six 4-wicket hauls, second-most after the Caribbean great Sunil Narine. Sunil Narine held the key for KKR in the year 2012 and registered seven 4-wicket hauls on his name in a concise while. After the retirement, Malinga had also helped Mumbai Indians to flourish their bowling unit as a bowling coach.
Recently he joined hands with Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2022.
Malinga had registered multiple terrific performances for his team, but we picked his top 5 bowling spells in the IPL history in this article.
#1 5/23 – MI vs DD in 2011
Lasith Malinga had spelled the magic of his real bowling first time in the season of IPL 2011. He had taken his solitary 5 wicket haul in the 4th edition of the Indian Premier League. Virender Sehwag leading Delhi Daredevils was a good team, but they couldn’t survive the vicious of Lasith Malinga’s bowling. He had picked up big wickets like David Warner and Unmukt Chand and rattled Delhi on a poor total of 95/10. MI had quickly chased it down with 8 wickets to spare in the hands.
#2 4/16 – MI vs DC in 2012
In a second league phase encounter against Deccan Chargers, Malinga had taken a 4-wicket haul with his furious bowling. A controversy had erupted in the context of the man of the match award, as the 2 wicket-taker Dale Steyn had got it instead of Malinga due to his economical bowling. But, in the end, Mumbai Indian had again registered a comfortable win by 5 wickets due to chequered bowling of Lasith Malinga.
#3 4/22 – MI vs KXIP in 2010
Mahela Jayawardene-led Kings XI Punjab had consistently won matches in the tournament before they met MI in the 27th game of the league. Malinga again showed his dominance with the ball by grabbing 4 wickets after conceding just 22 runs. Mumbai had invited Punjab to bat first, and they had put a decent total of 163 runs. While MI had achieved the total at the end after a hard fight back. This time Malinga didn’t miss the player of the match award. He is also one of the top 5 bowlers in IPL to pick most wickets against the Punjab-based team.
#4 4/23 – MI vs KKR in 2014
In the very first match of the season, MI faced the mighty Knight Riders. While batting first and after getting a couple of early dents from Malinga, KKR had succeeded in reaching a fighting total of 163/5. Malinga had produced fine spells of 4/23, including the big wickets of KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir, Jacques Kallis and all-rounder Shakib al Hasan. As MI batters came to bat, they got early blows from KKR spinners, and the whole team got restricted to 122/7. And at the end, KKR won the game by a considerable margin of 41 runs.
#5 4/31 – MI vs RCB in 2019
In his last edition of the Indian Premier League, Malinga had severely damaged Royal Challengers Bangalore by picking a 4-wicket haul. MI had invited Virat Kohli’s RCB to bat first, but after surviving the four thump of Malinga, they had succeeded in reaching 171/7. But, MI later chased it with fine knocks from Quinton de Kock, Hardik Pandya and Surya Kumar Yadav and had finished the game one over before.
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