When you go on the lookout for information on reverse swing – or previous-ball swing to be pedantic – one surprising title retains cropping up lately. Actually, half of that title can be certainly one of the first in your thoughts if Lasith had not retired.
Also, Malinga’s is not in the broader class of previous-ball swing. When you bowl with an upright seam with no change in your launch and the ball swings in direction of the (comparatively) shiny aspect, it is technically distinction swing. For the sake of simplifying terminology, these days it is put in the identical basket as reverse swing.
Some bowlers nonetheless bowl the approach Waqar Younis used to, with the seam pointing to effective leg. Mohammad Wasim did one thing related towards Bangladesh in Kolkata of their 2023 ODI World Cup match.
SRH recognise what Malinga brings. Possibly by design, the outfield in Hyderabad is the hardest and barest of all IPL venues. The pitch is naked. Bowlers hold banging the ball into the floor to scuff it up rapidly to allow them to load the much less broken aspect with saliva so as to get it going.
Since the begin of IPL 2025, amongst the 26 quick bowlers who’ve bowled 100 or extra balls in the again-half of the innings, solely Prasidh Krishna has a greater common than Malinga’s 14.05. Only Jasprit Bumrah, Krishna, Marco Jansen and Pat Cummins have been extra economical than his 9.14
The end result was that by the time Malinga got here in for his second over, the eleventh of the innings, the ball was prepared. CSK wanted simply 84 off the final ten with seven wickets in hand. But Malinga turned the sport on its head with the wicket of Sarfaraz Khan in that over and that of Matthew Short in the fifteenth. Both these deliveries swung. Early on in the fifteenth over, Malinga went for 4 off a thick exterior edge from Shivam Dube, once more because of previous-ball swing. Malinga’s three overs with the previous ball went for 19 and introduced SRH two wickets. CSK ultimately stopped ten runs quick. Malinga guarded towards predictability by bowling the odd quick ball and slower ball.
Since the begin of IPL 2025, amongst the 26 quick bowlers who’ve bowled 100 or extra balls in the again-half of the innings, solely Prasidh Krishna has a greater common than Malinga’s 14.05. Only Jasprit Bumrah, Krishna, Marco Jansen and Pat Cummins have been extra economical than his 9.14.
It is affordable to say there is no shock in the names which have performed higher than Malinga. Bumrah is thought of the biggest white-ball bowler ever, Krishna has the peak, Jansen has much more peak, and Cummins is a Test and ODI nice.
Among quick bowlers who’ve bowled at least 200 balls in the IPL since final yr, solely Anshul Kamboj has a greater strike price than Malinga, whose common is in the league of Josh Hazlewood, Krishna and Kamboj. Not dangerous for somebody not even the first or better of his title.
Malinga is the greatest-saved secret at SRH. He is subtler, and sure to take the informal observer abruptly. Once Cummins comes again, the SRH matches in Hyderabad can be value watching only for previous-ball bowling. There are additionally murmurs that we’ve not seen Sakib reverse the ball correctly but. He can bowl the reverse-swinging outswinger.
Sidharth Monga is a senior author at ESPNcricinfo
