KEY POINTS:
The unnerving aspect of facing Lasith Malinga is that you know what's coming - it's just seeing it and getting your bat in the way that's the problem.
Unlike Sri Lanka's other bowling headache, Muttiah Muralitharan, the 23-year-old doesn't rely on guile or trickery to make a batsman's stay at the crease a short one.
Malinga prefers a more direct approach to cause fear, indecision and/or bruising.
Equipped with an explosive round-arm action he generates pace by winding up and releasing the ball at a lower than standard trajectory, directly in front of the umpire's body between the neckline or midriff.
He'll pepper batsmen with a bouncer or three, then maybe throw in a knee-high full toss, before zeroing in with a shoe-crushing, 150km/h yorker at the base of the stumps.
It is rarely any more complicated than that - simple but effective, particularly against New Zealand.
Malinga has taken two five-wicket bags in 21 tests - at Napier last year and Wellington last weekend - and on both occasions he also sent a ripple of anxiety through the batsmen he didn't succeed in blasting out.
He first visited these shores with a Sri Lankan A side but came came to prominence at McLean Park in April last year.
His unusual delivery style then prompted Stephen Fleming to ask umpires Darrell Hair and Steve Bucknor to change their black trousers or wear white sweaters apron-style to act as a makeshift sightscreen, making it easier for the batsman to pick up the ball.
Bucknor agreed to wrap a jersey around his waist, but Malinga still managed five for 80 in the second innings for a match total of nine for 210.
A week later the New Zealanders were breathing a sigh of relief, thinking they had him sussed after Malinga recorded an unflattering two for 124 in his first bowl at the Basin.
Still, despite those encouraging signs New Zealand were taking no chances before Sri Lankan's arrival here last month for their third consecutive summer tour.
Malinga's repertoire was analysed on video, and the bowling machine was set at a low trajectory to sling the ball out in the nets.
That planning seemed to further demystify Sri Lanka's fastest bowler, and he took only two wickets in Christchurch and leaked 35 off four overs as New Zealand reached their 119-run victory target with five wickets in hand.
But Malinga, who has 71 wickets at 31 from 21 tests, again caught New Zealand unawares on his return to the Basin Reserve on Friday.
Charging in from the RA Vance stand that evening, Malinga trapped Jamie How plumb in front, had Fleming caught behind for a six-ball duck and picked out Nathan Astle's off stump with the last ball of the day.
New Zealand's batsmen claimed fading light didn't aid their cause, but they fared little better on a bright Saturday morning as Mathew Sinclair and Daniel Vettori were yorked in quick succession.
Things were so desperate that New Zealand eventually went to plan A - the jersey option - and asked umpires Simon Taufel and Brian Jerling to rug up.
Malinga responded with a career-best five for 68, setting up Sri Lanka's series-levelling 217-run victory.
He was not as prolific during New Zealand's forlorn run chase but speared a full toss at a squinting How's pads for another leg before dismissal on Sunday afternoon. He then started the rot on Monday when Fleming edged the first ball he fronted from the right armer to Kumar Sangakkara.
Fleming said Malinga had always posed a threat when a batsman was fresh at the crease because the ball was hard to pick out of an umpire-dominated background, but his increased pace was the major point of difference on this tour.
"The last time he was here he was 130km/h-135km/h and players were able to adjust. He can now bowl at such a pace [145km/h-150km/h] you really don't have time to move your feet and in some cases not move anything. The shock factor really set us back."
Fleming isn't the only international skipper to be taken aback by "Slinga". Like his deliveries, he materialised out of the blue.
"He'd just turn up at net practices when we were at Galle," Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene explained.
"Pretty soon none of the guys wanted to face him before a test match because you lose confidence.
"Our guys have got used to playing him now, but you still get the odd one that surprises you."
Malinga's teammates at least have the advantage of having grown up facing his ilk - his action may be unique in international cricket, but it is commonplace in Sri Lanka.
Although he started playing competitive cricket only at 17, Malinga had already honed his extravagant action through hours of beach cricket.
"Why he bowls like that is because in tennis ball cricket, if you bowl with a lower arm it's virtually impossible to face," Sri Lanka's Australian-born coach Tom Moody said.
"They burn the hair of the tennis ball and it reverses big time. As a young kid he'd run in and bowl this way and he's thought, 'wow look what it does!"'
Malinga was spotted in his late teens, when national bowling coach Champaka Ratnayake invited him to the Galle Cricket Foundation.
"Being an ex-fast bowler he understood not to change the action, he could relate to his uniqueness," Moody said.
Former Australian international Moody had no intention of altering Malinga's style either - though he did prescribe an intensive gym programme to counter the strain his action exerts on his right shoulder and back.
"When Lasith came into the national setup he was 52kg. He's put on 22kg in two years and as you can see, it's not fat.
"We've built him up to give him the strength and the power in the area where he most needs it. He is unique, he gets a lot of his power from the mid-thoracic spine.
"Most fast bowlers have lower back problems; with Lasith it's the middle of the back we have to look after."
While Malinga happily pumped the required iron he admitted it also took a while to transfer his talents from sand to grass.
"It took a lot of training - the ball was very heavy."
His ability to bowl yorkers means he will play a prominent part in the five-match one-day series which starts in Napier on December 28.
But Moody is working on expanding Malinga's limited attack arsenal.
"His main weapon is he bowls 90 miles an hour and he bowls it straight," the coach said.
"If he can add a slower ball, a bit of swing and variation in his pace and reverse swing it then he becomes even harder work."
Moody sidestepped the convention of transtasman co-operation by claiming he could not give New Zealand's batsmen any definitive clues on how to face Malinga.
"If you're looking around the umpire's waistline you're probably not picking the ball up too well or looking at the ball too closely, I suppose.
"It's hard for me to comment. I've never faced him, and I'm not about to jump in the nets either."
- NZPA
