Lasith Malinga
The Indian batsmen are training hard against a net bowler whose action has an uncanny resemblance to Sri Lankan slinger Lasith Malinga. He didn’t quite have the same pace, but he certainly was hard to pick. Virendar shewag stated that “I can tell you that any youngster who is facing Malinga for the first time in his career will find it difficult to read his yorkers. When Malinga bowls a length ball, it’s like any other delivery. I told my boys they should look out for the yorkers and slower deliveries.” Sehwag also admitted that bowlers like Malinga are so skillful they don’t need assistance from the pitch. “With the yorkers that he bowls, you don’t need any assistance from the pitch,” the Daredevils skipper said, when his team Delhi Dare devils were all out for 95 against Mumbai Indians.
The Mumbai Indians are up against the Kochi Tuskers and Sachin Tendulkar is on the verge of getting to his first T20 hundred. Kochi Tuskers bowler Vinay Kumar, totally flustered at the treatment meted out to him by the batting legend and Ambati Rayudu on a pitch that is as flat as a highway, does the unthinkable in the 16th over. Stopping in his delivery stride, he bowls with a round-arm action, just like Malinga, in a bid to confuse the Master. Tendulkar is surprised and just pushed it to cover for a rare dot ball in that innings. Kumar tried the same delivery two balls later and the umpire adjudged it a wide. It’s clear that the Malinga madness is catching on, and the Lankan bowler is fast becoming a phenomenon in these parts.
Ishant Sharma recently expressed the desire to bowl like Malinga and unleash the kind of yorkers he does at pace, but Sekar ridicules the idea of bowlers wanting to bowl like the Sri Lankan. “You can’t suddenly say one day that I want to bowl like Malinga,” he states with serious irritation.
Sekar, the fast bowling guru who is currently directing the MI concurs with that statement and reveals that each practice sessions is different from the other for Malinga. “He keeps a shoe at the batting crease and tries to hit it while bowling. That’s how he can perfect those yorkers. During practice, he hits the shoe 10 times out of ten. What you see in a match is a result of years and years and hours and hours of rigorous practice”. It is to be noted that these talents are there only to be admired, not aped. One cannot easily admire or imitate another so easily. It has to come through serious practices and dedication. Following Malinga is not an easy one and the one who gets will be of torn out. But in some day some time there will be an legend to take off this Yorker slinga, Lasith Malinga.
Tags: Cricket, Indian Premier League, IPL, Lasith Malinga, Mumbai Indians, Slinga, Sri Lanka, Test Cricket
