Yes, you read that right! Lasith Malinga, one of the fastest bowlers Sri Lankan cricket has ever produced, bowled an off-spin in a domestic match. ‘Slinga’ did not just attempt an off-spin, rather he did a great job too by taking three wickets for Teejay Lanka against LB Finance in the final encounter of MCA ‘A’ division knockout tournament. The Teejay Lanka skipper decided to bowl off-spin and his action almost looked like India’s all-rounder Kedar Jadhav’s side-arm delivery. Malinga’s brilliance with the ball helped his team win the match by 82 runs through the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method. LB Finance could only manage to score 125 for 7 in 25 overs, thanks to Malinga’s street-smart off-spin bowling.
The right-arm fast bowler takes a long run-up while bowling fast but bowling off-spin did not take much effort from him in terms of the run-up. He was on-spot trying to bowl a wicket-to-wicket line to the batsmen and getting the better of them.
Here’s the first-ever video of Malinga bowling off-spin –
Lasith Malinga Bowled Off Spin & Took 3 Wickets pic.twitter.com/LGkWb0Yjnd
— SJ (@J_Shanujan) October 30, 2017
First wicket, Malinga pitched the ball up but barely with any pace. The right-handed batsman decided to go for a slog sweep but all he could manage was a top edge which was caught by the wicketkeeper easily.
Second wicket, the 34-year-old came round the wicket to the right-handed batsman. All the batsman could manage was an inside edge off the bat and onto the stumps while going for a massive slog over long on.
Third wicket, Another right-handed batsman became the victim of Malinga coming round the wicket. He tried to slog the ball as well in order to improve the scoring rate. He ended up miscuing it towards the fielder who caught the ball at deep mid-off just outside the 30-yard-circle.
Malinga did not play in the recently concluded T20I series against Pakistan. The veteran bowler has lost a lot of pace in his bowling. Whether Malinga gets to try his hand at off-spin in international games, only time will tell.
