Stats: Lasith Malinga becomes the leading wicket-taker in T20I history

The first thing everyone remembers of Lasith Malinga is his success in the shorter formats by virtue of his slinging action and the toe-crushing yorkers. Those are also a reason why Malinga has been a legend with the ball in limited overs. His record in Twenty20 format and especially in the IPL speaks for himself. On Sunday night, the Sri Lankan pacer became the leading wicket-taker in the history of Men’s Twenty20 Internationals.

The 36-year-old who recently retired from the ODI format, is currently leading Sri Lanka in the 3-match T20I series against New Zealand that began on 1st September. Defending their total of 174 during the first T20I in Pallekele, Malinga struck in the very first over by cleaning up Colin Munro, his 98th T20I wicket. He returned to bowl his 3rd over during the 14th over of the chase when the Kiwis began to bring down the required run rate.

At this stage, the Sri Lankan T20I skipper got rid of the dangerous Colin de Grandhomme. With that wicket, he went past Shahid Afridi’s tally of 98 T20I wickets. Malinga had figures of 3-0-8-2 but conceded 15 runs in his last and 4th over. The Kiwis were set towards a win requiring 18 runs from the last two overs. Pallekele will host all matches of this series and the next game will be played on Tuesday.

Leading wicket-takers in the Men’s Twenty20 Internationals:

Malinga will be aiming to become the first man to reach 100 wickets in the T20I cricket there. Across the both Men’s and Women’s cricket, only two players have completed 100 T20I wickets. The West Indies Woman Anisa Mohammed leads the list with 115 wickets while Ellyse Perry, who recently reached this milestone, has 103 wickets to her name in T20Is.

By topping the T20I wicket-takers list, Malinga helped Sri Lankans to lead the wicket-takers list in all the three formats. Muttiah Muralitharan has claimed 800 and 534 wickets respectively in Test cricket and ODIs. Similarly, the Indian players are on the leading run-getters in all three formats. Sachin Tendulkar is the top run-scorer in Tests and ODIs while Rohit Sharma leads in the T20Is.

Leading wicket-takers in the T20I cricket: (Men/Women)

(Stats as on September 1, 2019)