By Suneer Chowdhary
Malinga blew the Kenyans away with a spell of less than eight overs, in which he bagged six wickets including a second hat-trick in World Cup cricket. Incidentally, this was the second hat-trick in the tournament.
Published: Mar 01, 2011, 06:16 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 01, 2011, 06:16 PM (IST)
By Suneer Chowdhary
Colombo: Mar 1, 2011
According to media reports, Kumar Sangakkara was miffed when he first heard that Malinga had injured himself again and would miss out on the first game of the World Cup. He missed two matches, including one vital game against Pakistan. And it was quite evident today why the captain had fretted about his absence.
Malinga blew the Kenyans away with a spell of less than eight overs, in which he bagged six wickets including a second hat-trick in World Cup cricket. Incidentally, this was the second hat-trick that the tournament has seen in as many games after the Kemar Roach one against the Netherlands last night.
After two woeful performances with the bat, Kenya contrived to better their own falling standards but they would have been left thanking their stars that none of Malinga’s toe-crushing yorkers had sent any of their batsmen to the hospital.
The mandate to the Kenyan batsmen seemed to have been simple. Bat the 50 overs. After being bowled out in 23 and 33 overs respectively in the first couple of games, it was hardly a surprise. What was also not surprising was that despite all the efforts and batting through to the 44th over Kenya managed only 142 all out.
The hapless Kenyan batting were pegged back early by Nuwan Kulasekera and Malinga both of who scalped a wicket each. Maurice Ouma opted to review the lbw against him and the decision stayed while Seren Waters, probably shaken up by the toe-crushing, batsman-pushing yorker, did not use the system despite the ball swinging down the leg-side.
At 8/2, visions of an early finish looked to be coming true.
However, that was the last wicket that the Sri Lankans managed for almost 30 overs as the Obuya brothers, Collins and David, guided their side out of the troubled waters. Both got to half centuries but batting was so laboured that it never looked like the Sri Lankan bowlers would ever be threatened.
There were a couple of records set; first Collins got to his half-century, in what turned out to be the World Cup’s slowest effort. He took 100 deliveries to get there. His brother broke that record by reaching his 50 off 104 before getting out.
And the combination of the Obuya dismissals and Malinga-return was enough for the side to capitulate from 120/3 to 142 all out.
Tanmay Mishra was declared out lbw off the last ball of the 42nd over, which was followed by the stump-cleaning act of Peter Ongondo, Shem Ngoche and Elijah Otieno, all bowled for ducks.
Brief Scores: Kenya 142 all out in 43.4 overs (Collins Obuya 52, David Obuya 51; Lasith Malinga 6 for 38, Nuwan Kulasekera 1 for 18) vs Sri Lanka
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)
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