Separamadu Lasith Malinga (Sinhala: සෙපරමාදු ලසිත් මාලිංග; born 28 August 1983) is a Sri Lankan cricketer. He captained the Sri Lankan 2014 T20 World Cup winning side. He was considered as one of the best bowlers of his time. He is the only bowler to have taken 4 wickets in 4 consecutive balls (double hat-trick) in international cricket two times. He is a right-arm fast bowler that is commonly used as a specialist death bowler, and is well known for his distinctive round-arm action, sometimes referred to as a sling action, which leads to his nicknames, 'Slinga Malinga'.
One of the most successful limited-overs bowlers of all time, Malinga's unorthodox action and dipping slower ball yorkers are credited with much of his success. He is best known for his ability to take consecutive wickets, with in-swinging yorkers: he is the only bowler in the world to have two World Cup hat-tricks, the only bowler to have taken three hat-tricks in ODIs and one of only two players to have taken four wickets in four consecutive balls in any form of international cricket, which he alone has done twice. He is also the first bowler to take five hat-tricks across all formats of international cricket, and holds the record for most hat-tricks in international cricket.
On 22 April 2011, he announced his retirement from Test cricket. He has been named as the official event ambassador for the World Twenty20 Championships by ICC. On 26 July 2019, he retired from One Day International cricket after the first ODI against Bangladesh.
In September 2019, during the series against New Zealand, Malinga became the first bowler to take 100 wickets in Twenty20 International cricket. Malinga took a hat-trick to become the first bowler to claim two T20I hat-tricks, and four wickets in four balls, in the third over of his spell, while becoming the second bowler in the world to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in T20I history after Rashid Khan during the process.
In January 2021, he retired from T20 franchise cricket.
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