Sri Lankan legend Lasith Malinga played his last World Cup match on Saturday, 7 July against India at Headingly. In his final World Cup game, Malinga picked up a solitary wicket to overtake Wasim Akram’s tally of 55 wickets in World Cups.
Malinga, who made his World Cup debut in 2007, has now played in four editions of the competition and has finished as the third-highest wicket taker in the history of the tournament with 56 scalps.
Only Glenn McGrath (71) and Muttiah Muralitharan (68) has more wickets than the veteran Sri Lankan pacer.
As far as this World Cup is concerned, Malinga finished with 13 wickets from seven games at an economy of 6.04. He single-handedly has led the Lankan bowling attack which is still very raw in terms of experience.
His best performance came game Afghanistan and England in which he bowled decisive spells and picked up key wickets to help Sri Lanka win the game.
He picked up 3/39 against Afghanistan, 4/43 against England and 3/55 against West Indies, games in which Sri Lanka tasted success.
Malinga contribution to Sri Lanka’s World Cup success in the past can be gauged from the fact that the Islanders played back-to-back finals of the 2007 and 2011 World Cup.
Malinga is the first person to take two Cricket World Cup hat-tricks.
His best ever performance was against South Africa in the 2007 edition where he took four wickets in four balls to rattle the South Africa batting line-up. In the next edition of the competition, he picked another hat-trick, this time against Kenya.
Meanwhile, Twitter hailed the Lankan legend and bid him an emotional good bye. Here’s what they had to say about ‘Slinga Malinga’.
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