Mahela Jayawardene Retires From Test Cricket...

[mtkr]

An injury to Marvan Atapattu pushed Jayawardene to the helm in February 2006

 

 

[mtkr]

Though he led Sri Lanka to a 2-0 win in Bangladesh, they lost the next series against Pakistan at home

 

 

[mtkr]

Lord's continued to yield runs for Jayawardene - he scored 61 and 119 in the drawn first Test

 

 

[mtkr]

Though he didn't score much at Trent Bridge, Jayawardene led Sri Lanka to their second win in England in 22 years. The teams shared the series 1-1

 

 

[mtkr]

Buoyed by the success in England, Jayawardene returned to Sri Lanka and set about scoring his Test best. He became the second Sri Lankan to score a triple-century and added a whopping 624 runs with Kumar Sangakkara in the first Test against South Africa - the highest partnership for any wicket

 

 

 

[mtkr]

In December that year, he led Sri Lanka to their first win in New Zealand since 1995. The Test series was drawn 1-1

 

 

[mtkr]

The year 2007 was phenomenal for Jayawardene in Tests. He scored his first hundred in Australia, and ended the year averaging 98.20 from eight Tests with five hundreds and a half-century

 

 

[mtkr]

Another first for Sri Lanka under his captaincy was a Test win in West Indies. Jayawardene played his part with a century in the 121-run win in Guyana

 

 

[mtkr]

He scored a hundred in his 99th Test, one that Sri Lanka were in danger of losing after Mohammad Ashraful scored a century in attempting to chase 522

 

 

[mtkr]

Jayawardene's 100th Test was in Chittagong, in January 2009. While he could not repeat his personal success from the previous Test, he led Sri Lanka to the series sweep

 

 

[mtkr]

Two double-centuries followed in the year: 240 v Pakistan in Karachi, and 275 v India in Ahmedabad. However, it was also the year he gave up the Test captaincy ...

 

 

[Avataar]

Vuuu....

 

 

bl@st bl@st bl@st

[mtkr]

... handing the reins over to his good friend Kumar Sangakkara, who won his first Test in charge, against Pakistan in Galle

 

[mtkr]

Another landmark series for Jayawardene came in March 2012, when he scored 180, 5, 105 and 64 in a two Tests at home against England. The 180, in Galle, was his 30th Test hundred and, significantly, it was the series with which he began a second short stint as captain

 

[mtkr]

However, after Sri Lanka lost five of ten Tests under him - including a game to New Zealand at the P Sara Oval, which was their first victory in Sri Lanka in 14 years and helped them come back from 0-1 down to level the series - Jayawardene gave up captaincy for the last time