"I am not alright. I have still not fully recovered. I wanted to play this match and help the other players and show them you can do whatever the team needs," said Malinga after leading his team to a 14-run win over UAE in their Asia Cup opener here today.
His effort made the difference after Sri Lanka put up an ordinary batting performance to end up with 129/8. Malinga admitted that batting needs to improve.
UAE captain Amjad Javed said the team will look to bounce back against Bangladesh tomorrow.
"The whole game was excellent. We put them [Sri Lanka] under pressure with the bowling. It was a big set back to lose two wickets to Malinga in the first over. Then we lost two more wickets and it is always difficult to chase. We have a match tomorrow. We will come back and try to do our best," said Javed, whose team ended with 115/9 in 20 overs.