It was business as usual as Sri Lanka coasted to a nine-wicket win against Kenya in a Group A match at the R Premadasa Stadium here on Tuesday. Down with a mild back injury for two weeks, Lasith Malinga announced his return with a careerbest six for 38, including a hat-trick – his second in World Cups.
Having bowled out the Kenyans for 142, the hosts wasted no time in scoring the required runs. Openers Tillakaratne Dilshan (44) and Upul Tharanga (67 not out) had little trouble negotiating the Kenyan bowlers.
Skipper Kumar Sangakkara remained not out on 27 as the Sri Lankans won in 18.4 overs. Whether or not Malinga would play the game was debated at length over the past few days. Should the Sri Lankans give him a few more days to recover from his injury and risk him playing against Australia on Saturday without match practice or play him on Tuesday to assess his match fitness was the question.
The 28-year-old answered all the questions, one yorker at a time. It was the second hat-trick at the showpiece event for Malinga, having taken four wickets in four balls against South Africa in 2007.
Kenya had won the toss and elected to bat first. It seemed the match would finish in quick time, as had been the case when the Kenyans faced New Zealand in Ahmedabad and were shot out for 69. Another blink-and-you-miss match seemed in store when the minnows lost two wickets in the first three overs. Nuwan Kulasekara was on target from the start, sticking to his trusted in-swingers. As suspected, the ball found a Kenyan pad as Maurice Ouma was out for a single.
In the next over, Malinga gave a snap-shot of what was to be the norm of the day. A full, swinging delivery accounted for Serene Waters. But the Obuya brothers — David and Collins — made sure that the hosts wouldn’t have an early dinner.
Their first task was to see off Malinga and once they managed so, they began opening up against the other bowlers. In fact, apart from Malinga, no Sri Lankan bowler troubled the Kenyans much. But no matter how good they looked, it was a matter of time before Malinga came back and finished it off. David and Collins hit similar halfcenturies, taking similar number of deliveries — 106 and 100 respectively. Their resistance, however, was broken once the maverick pacer was back.
The duo had just taken the score past the three-figure mark when, in the 32nd over, Malinga slanted one in, curling from middle to hit the base of off-stump of Collins.
David, sensing a need to score quickly, targeted Muralitharan, going for a slog sweep but was caught at mid-wicket. Chamara Silva did his best impression of Jonty Rhodes, flinging himself towards the striker’s end and running out skipper Jimmy Kamande.
Just four wickets remained with 128 on board. Six balls were all it took for Malinga to take them all. Four yorkers, starting from the last ball of the 42nd over to the fourth ball of the 43rd over, bore the same killer intentions.
Tanmay Mishra received a trademark Malinga ‘slinga’, and was given out leg before. The subsequent decision review failed to save him, despite their being doubts of it being a no ball and also just about hitting the leg stump.
Peter Ongondo, Shem Ngoche and Elijah Otieno came, saw and went back with duck against their names as Malinga’s carnage cut short the innings at 142.
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