Malinga over the moon with World Twenty20 success

Outgoing Sangakkara praises stand-in captain’s achievement.

MIRPUR:

Lasith Malinga found himself trusted with the Sri Lankan captaincy midway through the World Twenty20 and emerged with the trophy in his arms on Sunday, after three heady weeks in Bangladesh.

Having previously lost two finals, Sri Lanka entered the tournament under the leadership of 24-year-old Dinesh Chandimal, who was slapped with a one-match suspension after the team’s second slow over-rate offence in 12 months.



While Malinga stepped in as stand-in skipper, Chandimal’s replacement Lahiru Thirimanne grabbed his chance with both hands, prompting the selectors to continue with the arrangement even after the regular T20 skipper’s suspension ended.

Malinga’s leadership inexperience was more than offset by the presence of three former skippers – Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan – and the current Test and 50-overs captain, Angelo Mathews, who were always willing to help him out.

“Before the tournament, I was not the captain,” Malinga told reporters after the team’s emotional victory.

“After that, Chandimal had to be dropped. He could not play the match because of [slow] overrate [suspension]. After that the selectors decided to give me the captaincy.

“I’ve played in this team for 10 years and I know every single player — their ability, what they can do. I think I really enjoyed my captaincy in the last three games.”

Sangakkara, man-of-the-match in the final for his unbeaten 52, said he was impressed by Malinga’s leadership.

“Our job is to support anyone who captains, it does not matter who he is,” said Sangakkara. “Lasith did a fantastic job; I think he was extremely impressive.”

Dhoni defends struggling Yuvraj

India captain MS Dhoni sprang to defend teammate Yuvraj Singh after the left-hander’s struggle with the bat in the World Twenty20 final loss to Sri Lanka on Sunday.

The left-hander used up 21 deliveries towards the end to score just 11 runs, failing to rotate strike and allow the set batsman and player-of-the-tournament, Virat Kohli (77), to launch a late assault.

Dhoni conceded the last four overs probably cost India the trophy, which would have completed a record limited overs treble for the 50-over World Cup and Champions Trophy holders.

He refused, however, to blame Yuvraj, who barring a half-century against Australia, had a poor tournament.

“He was trying and that’s the most you can do,” said Dhoni. “It happens to everyone, not just cricketers. Yuvraj tried his best, it was an off day for him.”

Asked why he did not promote himself ahead of Yuvraj, Dhoni said, “We wanted a left-right combination to make it slightly difficult for the bowlers to execute their plans. That was the reason why we had Yuvraj at number four.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2014.

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