Lasith Malinga retires: A look at all the records in his remarkable ODI career

Lasith Malinga played his last ODI match for Sri Lanka on Friday against Bangladesh at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Malinga was instrumental in his last international ODI match also as he picked up 2 early wickets to rock the Bangladeshi opening batsmen. He finished with the figures of 3/28 and picked up a wicket in his last in ODI cricket. He had announced his retirement from international ODI cricket during the Cricket World Cup and made sure his last match game was memorable.

Malinga had already stopped playing Test cricket in 2011 to prolong his career. Now the 35-year-old will only play his trade in T20 cricket as he harbours dreams of playing cricket in the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2020.

READ | Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga retires from ODI cricket

Malinga is one of the greatest limited-overs bowlers in the history of cricket with 338 wickets in just 219 innings. He is world-renowned for his ability to bowl constant yorkers while deceiving the batsmen with a deadly slower delivery. Now as he leaves ODI cricket behind, here’s a look at some of the incredible statistics and records of Malinga in the 50-over format

1. Malinga (338) is the third-highest wicket taker for Sri Lanka in ODI history behind Muttiah Muralitharan (523) and Chaminda Vaas (399). Even at the recently-concluded World Cup, Malinga picked up the most wickets (13) for Sri Lanka.

2. Malinga also has the second-best strike-rate (32.4) for a Sri Lankan bowler behind only Ajantha Mendis.

3. Malinga is the king of hat-tricks as he is the only bowler to take three hat-tricks in ODIs. Two of those hat tricks have come at the World Cup, which is also a record. Along with Wasim Akram, Malinga has taken a total of 4 international hat tricks.

4. Another record that Malinga holds is that he is the only bowler to take 4 wickets in 4 balls in international cricket.

5. Malinga is third in the list of cricketers with most wickets in the history of Cricket World Cup. Malinga has taken 56 wickets in 29 matches in the World Cup is behind only Muralidharan (68) and leader Glenn McGrath (71). He is, however, the fastest to reach 50 ODI wickets in World Cups in 26 innings.

6. Malinga also has a batting record to his name as he holds the record scoring the highest ODI score for Sri Lanka at No. 10 position. In fact, Malinga is the only Lankan player to score a half-century at the position.