Regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket, Mahela Jayawardene was a technically sound batsman who was always hungry for runs. Mahela was a lynchpin for Sri Lanka’s batting line-up for over a decade. Apart from being the greatest Sri Lankan batsman, Mahela was also a great captain who took the Sri Lanka cricket team to greater heights.
Former Sri Lankan skipper’s last outing in the purest format of the game came in August 2014 against Pakistan. Mahela retired with 11814 runs under his belt from 149 Test matches at an average of 49.8. The last Test of the two-match series between Pakistan and Sri Lanka played from August 14 to August 18 in Colombo held a lot of importance as it was the last time that Mahela donned whites.
The historic game had Sri Lanka batting first and posting 320 runs on the scoreboard. Upul Tharanga was the wrecker-in-chief for the hosts with his delightful innings of 92 runs. Mahela failed to perform in the first innings as he ended up with just four runs off 16 deliveries. In response, Pakistan added 332 runs to the scoreboard on the back of a century by Sarfaraz Ahmed.
The third innings, which was also the last batting innings for Mahela in Test cricket, saw him smashing a fantastic half-century. Sri Lanka scored 282 runs with Mahela leading with his knock of 54 runs. Interestingly, it was the 50th and the final fifty by Mahela in the purest format of the game.
With 270 runs to chase, Pakistan had a torrid start in the fourth innings. The top-five batsmen failed to score anything above 10 and the visitors found themselves reeling at 50 for five. Sarfaraz again showed his class by slamming a half-century. However, no support from other batsmen meant Pakistan collapsing at 165 runs. In the end, Sri Lanka won the game by 105 runs and the two-match Test series by 2-0.
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