It didn't take much time for Nuwan Thushara to get into the thick of the action in his SA20 debut on Sunday when the Sri Lankan's death-over bowling reminded the cricket world of his countrymate and fast-bowling great Lasith Malinga.
Playing for MI Cape Town against the Paarl Royals, Thushara registered impressive figures of 2 for 27 in his four overs to limit the Royals to 162/3.
Thushara showed his death-over bowling skills when he dismissed Jos Buttler and Fabian Allen in the 18th over off back-to-back deliveries -- both bowled full, especially the one that dismissed Allen, which reminded of Malinga's toe-crushers.
Watch Thushara's wickets in this video:
It put Thushara on a hat-trick, but Mitchell van Buuren managed to prevent that.
Interestingly, Thushara will be honing his skills under Malinga itself, as the right-arm pacer was picked by Mumbai Indians at the Indian Premier League players' auction in December last year.
In a three-way bidding war between MI, Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore, Thushara's base pice of INR 50 lakhs, soared to INR 4.8 crore -- the winning bid from the Mumbai franchise.
Malinga is the bowling coach of Mumbai Indians.
Also, Thushara received his debut SA20 cap from Malinga, who is part of the coaching team of the Cape Town franchise that is owned by Mumbai Indians.
The Cape Town team was dismissed for 103 while chasing 163 to win, as the Royals registered an impressive 59-run win.
In six T20 internationals so far in his career, the 29-year-old Thushara has taken six wickets at an average of 24.83 and economy rate of 9.21. In 81 domestic T20s, he has picked up 109 wickets at an average of 18.06 and economy rate of 7.74.
