Stats: Vintage Lasith Malinga scripts a grandiose victory for Sri Lanka with 4 in 4

Lasith Malinga stood up for his team on Friday night against New Zealand to deliver one of the greatest bowling spells in the history of T20I cricket. The Lankan skipper got four wickets with four consecutive deliveries in his 2nd over while defending their total of 125. Malinga cleaned up Colin Munro and Colin de Granhomme and had the likes of Hamish Rutherford and Ross Taylor trapped in front. The 36-year-old took one more in the next over to complete a 5-wicket haul as the hosts defeated the Kiwis by 37 runs.

All the records and stats that Lasith Malinga created with his sensational bowling effort in Pallekele:

1 – Lasith Malinga now has mastered the feat of picking up four wickets with four consecutive deliveries in an International game on two different instances. He recorded first such instance during the 2007 World Cup match against South Africa. Earlier this year, Rashid Khan took 4 in 4 against Ireland during a T20I which is only another instance of a double hat-trick for a player in Internationals.

1 – Malinga became the first player to take two hat-tricks in T20I cricket. His first T20I hat-trick came against Bangladesh in 2017. Six other players have claimed one hat-trick apiece. He is also the only bowler with as many as three hat-tricks in ODI cricket.

2 – Malinga is only the 2nd player to take a hat-trick in international cricket while leading a team. Wasim Akram’s two hat-tricks in Test cricket came when he was the captain of Pakistan.

2 – Lasith is only the 2nd player in professional cricket to bag 4 wickets with four consecutive deliveries in a game. Bob Crisp of Western Province was the first such player as his both double hat-tricks came in first-class cricket during 1931/32 and 1933/34 seasons in South Africa’s FC competition named Currie Cup.

5 – Number of hat-tricks for Malinga in International cricket; the most by any player. Wasim Akram has a total of four hat-tricks in International cricket as he picked two each in Tests and ODIs. No other bowler has picked up more than two hat-tricks in Internationals.

5/6 – Lasith Malinga’s bowling figures of 5/6 in this match are the best T20I figures for a captain. Jersey’s Charles Perchard (5/17 vs Guernsey in 2019) and Shakib Al Hasan (5/20 vs West Indies in 2018) are only other players with 5-wicket hauls in T20Is as captain.

100 – With the wicket of Colin Munro, Malinga became the first player to bag 100 wickets in Men’s T20I cricket. In Women’s cricket, Anisa Mohammed and Ellyse Perry achieved before Malinga. However, the Sri Lankan pacer is the first cricketer to pick up 100 wickets in all the three formats of international cricket.