Exclusive: Farveez Maharoof Reveals How Mahela Jayawardene Was Catalyst To His Hat-trick Against India
Published - 06 May 2020, 04:44 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:06 AM
A chance to return for the side followed only when Sri Lanka fast bowling ace Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara were rested in a dead rubber against India as they had already qualified for the final. And Maharoof delivered with a five-wicket haul, which included a hat-trick, in a losing cause. In an exclusive interview with CricketAddictor, Maharoof revealed how Mahela Jayawardene walked up to him and told him ‘not to follow his natural instincts’ during the hat-trick delivery.
Farveez Maharoof: When Mahela Jayawardene tells, you listen
Farveez Maharoof would have bowled a yorker to Zaheer Khan, had he followed his natural instinct and Mahela Jayawardene would not have walked up to him from the slips. India had already lost three consecutive wickets — MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja and Praveen Kumar — and the bails had fell off at a windy Dambulla.
It gave Jayawardene to have a long chat with Maharoof and advice him to deliver a back of the length delivery. Zaheer Khan, was left in disbelief, as he was expecting a yorker but the tip from Jayawardene made all the difference.
”I think even in that series, I made a comeback as a player, a lot of pressure was in me to perform in that series. In the second match against Bangladesh, I was dropped. In the third game two of our bowlers were rested, so then I got my chance again because we already qualified for the final, so I was given another opportunity and that’s where I picked up a hat-trick,” Farveez Maharoof told CricketAddictor in an exclusive interview.
“The fondest memory was after first two wickets of Ravindra Jadeja and Praveen Kumar, the hat-trick bowl before I came to bowl the bails fell off, and it took sometime because it was very windy day in Dambulla, the umpires put the bail back in, and first fielder was Mahela asked me, what will you bowl, my natural instinct was to bowl a yorker because Zaheer (Khan) was a tailender. But what Mahela (Jayawardene) told me was he is a fast bowler, he must be expecting a yorker, so just giving you an idea, just think of it. So on top of my mind, I was like yorker, what else to be bowled, because when a person like Mahela tells, you listen such a gentleman. I bowled back of the length and I reckon Zaheer did not expect it,” he added.
The Colombo all-rounder retired with 135 ODI wickets, 25 in Tests and seven T20I wickets with experiences in country cricket and the IPL, besides representing his national team in marquee tournaments.
