Sri Lanka’s stylish middle order batsman Mahela Jayawardene joined the elite group of those having scored 11,000 test runs when he swept off-spinner Saeed Ajmal for a six to complete 11,000 runs in his 141st Test, becoming only the eighth batsman and first Sri Lankan to achieve the historical milestone.
Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene made his test debut for Sri Lanka in 1997 when Sri Lanka posted the World Record score of 952 and Mahela’s contribution was 66 in his 1st match and since then he has been a loyal servant to Sri Lankan Cricket.
Mahela Jayawardene joined an exciting club of cricketers who are known as Legends of Cricket.
The former Australian captain Allan Border was the 1st player to achieve this great feat and since then the list has grown to eight legends. The list includes two players each from India, the West Indies and Australia and one from Sri Lanka and South Africa.
Former West Indian legend Brian Lara is the fastest to reach the milestone as he crossed the 11,000 run mark in 213 test innings while Mahela Jayawardene achieved the feat in 237 innings and Mahela is the 6th fastest batsman to surpass this magical number. It is quite probable that Mahela will ecclipse the statistics of Brain Lara and Allan Border in his cricketing tenure.
Mahela has achieved these runs as stylish as them come and it would be hard-pressed to find a contemporary of his who could surpass him in style and finesse. Another point that could be accented on, is that the maestro made his runs batting lower order in the innings unlike some of the exclusive names alongside him on the list.
The another greatness of this feat is also that he is also a pallbearer of Sri Lanka’s batting together with his friend and colleague Kumar Sangakkara and latter stages T M Dilshan. The fact that most of his career Jayawardena comes into bat is under the weighty proposition of simply not being able to afford to lose his wicket can be articulated as one stand-out factor when judging him alongside the other greats. Most of the others have batted in the security of great batting line ups cushioned by the fact that there is someone else there to take the fight; this is a huge pressure releasing factor in a batsman’s mind and could be a certain license to better and more flamboyant play. Carrying the weight of 20 million expectations every single time you step out to bat cannot be an easy feat.
Mahela Jayawardene’s happy hunting ground is his faithful club grounds, Sinhalese Sports Club Grounds where he scored his magical knock of 374 which was involved in the world record partnership of 624 with Kumar Sangakkara. Mahela Jayawardene never showed any signs of discomfort playing away from home and his track record shows that he was always successful all around the world making his mark as one of most stylish dependable middle order batsmen ever to play the sport of Cricket.
It is hoped that Mahela’s elegant rendition of the art of wielding the willow will continue to be the corner stone of Sri Lanka Cricket and that it will serve well for the future and the generations of youngsters taking up the game.
Longer may he continue to delight his countrymen and brandish his willow in accustomed grace and fortitude.
