Lasith Malinga is the second bowler to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in T20Is (Twitter/ICC)
Lasith Malinga, 36, took four wickets in four consecutive balls in the 3rd T20I against New Zealand, creating several new cricket records in the process. Malinga finished with career-best figures of 5/6, as the New Zealand innings folded for 88 runs in 16 overs. Sri Lanka won the match by 37 runs.
Malinga is the second bowler to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in T20I cricket. Rashid Khan is the only other bowler with this feat. In T20s, Andre Russell and Al Amin Hossain are the others to have taken four wickets in four balls.
Malinga is also the only bowler to have taken two hat-tricks in T20I cricket. He had picked up a hat-trick in 2016/17 against Bangladesh before this.
This was Malinga’s fifth hat-trick in international cricket, the most by any bowler. Wasim Akram has four hat-tricks to his name across formats.
Malinga also reached his 100th T20I scalp in the course of his record-scripting spell, a mark no other bowler has reached as of now.
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Lasith Malinga has claimed FOUR wickets in FOUR balls! Fast and full swinging yorkers! Game on in Kandy – https://t.co/psprTfyg0T #SLvNZ pic.twitter.com/2TOVewPk8v— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) September 6, 2019
Malinga’s figures on Thursday were his career-best figures in T20Is. His previous best had been 5/31. This was also Malinga’s second five-wicket haul in T20Is.
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