Legends are born to script history and who would prove this fact better than veteran Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga. He may have had faced the wrath of people on social media for his physique but the critics don’t have any idea what is he capable of.


Malinga chose to slam the haters with the ball as he set a world record on Friday night against New Zealand at Pallekele. During the final T20I clash, the 36-year-old speedster became the first-ever bowler in the history of the game to scalp 4 wickets off 4 consecutive deliveries twice.

Malinga removed Colin Munro (12), Hamish Rutherford (0), Colin de Grandhomme (0) and Ross Taylor (0) to break the backbone of the Kiwi batting line-up.

Malinga began the mayhem with rattling Munro’s stumps with the help of an unplayable yorker. Rutherford was his next victim as he was trapped LBW by the speedster. The on-field umpire gave it not out but Sri Lanka opted for DRS and replays showed the ball was crashing into the stumps.

De Grandhomme was Malinga’s third scalp in as many deliveries as he too was clean bowled. Ross Taylor was adjudged LBW as a brute of a yorker trapped him in front.

Here’s the video:



This was also Malinga's fifth hat-trick in international cricket which is the most by any bowler. Wasim Akram had four hat-tricks to his name across formats. Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan was the first to grab four wickets in four deliveries in a T20I. He did it against Ireland earlier this year.

With this remarkable feat, Malinga also became the first cricketer in the history of the T20Is to go past 100 wickets. He surpassed former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi’s tally of 97 scalps to become the leading wicket-taker T20 Internationals.

Malinga once achieved a similar feat in the 2007 50-over World Cup in South Africa where he scalped four wickets in as many deliveries.