Twitter Reactions: Lasith Malinga torments New Zealand with a thunderous five-wicket haul

Lasith Malinga is 36 years old and he retired from ODI cricket back in July after the series versus Bangladesh. But he remains as the skipper of the Sri Lankan T20I team. At an age when many bowlers contemplate retiring from all formats, Malinga is still weaving his magic in the shortest format. The world was a witness to his masterclass at the Pallekele International Stadium.

The veteran tormented New Zealand with a hat-trick in the third T20I of the three-match series. It’s a dead rubber, but it didn’t fizzle out the spirit from the speedster, who gave it his all. His performance came after the Kiwis could only manage 125 runs in the first innings on a deck, which provided a fair amount of assistance to the spinners. Malinga was tidy in his first over.

Magical Malinga in Pallekele

In his second, he cleaned up Colin Munro with a peach of a Yorker. In the very next ball, Hamish Rutherford fell prey to him. The on-field umpire didn’t give the batsman out, but Malinga was confident and he took the DRS. Replays showed that the Lankan skipper was right. Thereafter, Malinga ripped apart Colin de Grandhomme’s woodwork and erupted in jubilation.

It was his second hat-trick in T20Is and five in limited-overs internationals. He didn’t stop and trapped the ever so experienced Ross Taylor to make it four out of four in his second over. The Black Caps’ batsmen looked absolutely hapless. They had no clue about Malinga’s lethal toe-crushers. It didn’t spring a surprise that the pacer came back for a third over in the opening spell.

The extended spell also worked wonders for Malinga. In the fourth ball, he picked up the wicket of Tim Seifert with a floaty half-volley outside the off-stump. His figures in the first three overs read 3-1-5-5. In the meantime, he also became the first bowler to pick up 100 wickets in T20I cricket.

It was Munro’s wicket that helped him get to the milestone. The crowd in Pallekele was over the moon after seeing the legend inflict mayhem in the opposition camp. After the stupendous spell of bowling with his yorkers, the users on Twitter showered praises on Malinga.

Here is how Twitter lauded Lasith Malinga