17-year-old Matheesa Pathirana aces Lasith Malinga's bowling style

Sri Lanka’s veteran bowler Lasith Malinga’s days in international cricket are definitely numbered. At 36, he is not getting any younger and his troubles with injuries not very long ago have made things only worse for him. At the same time, one cannot say that Lasith Malinga has lost any of his skills despite being on the wrong side of the 30s.

The Sri Lanka star is still a force to reckon with especially in T20Is. In his last series, he rocked New Zealand with his deadly bowling. In the third and final T20I of the series, he picked up an unbelievable four wickets in four balls. It was the second time, Malinga picked up four in four in international cricket. He did it first against South Africa in the 2007 World Cup.

He eventually finished the game by picking up five wickets while conceding just 6 runs. It was his spell that helped Sri Lanka defend 125 and avoid a whitewash at home. During the series, the right-arm pacer also became the leading wicket-taker in the shortest format of the game. He surpassed Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi to achieve the incredible feat. Sri Lanka’s T20I captain also became the first bowler to take 100 wickets in the T20 Internationals.

Another Lasith Malinga?

Sri Lanka would definitely miss their star man once he retires. Lasith Malinga is arguably the greatest pacer to have played for the islanders. He helped them make it to the final of the two consecutive World Cups in 2007 and 2011 before leading them to the glory in the 2014 T20 World Cup. It is now only a matter of time before the legendary pacer announces his retirement.

Well, it seems like Sri Lanka would not miss Malinga much as another like-for-like bowler is fast making his way up in the game. Recently, a video went viral across the social media where a youngster could be seen terrorising the opposition with his bowling. What made the 17-year old Matheesa Pathirana from Kandy special was his sling-arm action like that of Malinga.

At just 17, he seems to have mastered his bowling style as the video showed just how effective he was. He bowled a pin-point yorker to castle the batsman.

Here is the video: