Mahela Jayawardene reached another milestone in his illustrious career on Wednesday, even if he was too busy flaying Bangladeshi bowlers around the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium to notice. He did, however, notice a change in the way the hosts approached the game as he and the other Sri Lankan batsmen put the game out of reach. Jayawardene moved past Allan Border’s 11,174 runs to become the sixth highest scorer in Test cricket, scoring 203 not out before Sri Lanka’s first innings declaration on 730-6 after tea on day three of the first Test. The visitors had a 463-run lead at stumps after the Tigers lost opener Tamim Iqbal to close at 35-1.
‘Not really, I wasn’t [aware of the milestone]. I mean, it feels good. I think at the end of the day what matters was that we put up a decent score on the board and that was the most important thing,’ the former Sri Lankan captain said at the press briefing on Wednesday.
He also said that a let up from the Tigers helped his cause.
‘Yeah, it looked like they gave up a bit,’ he said of the Tigers’ shift in focus from wicket-taking to run-prevention.
‘So it became a bit easier, but it wasn’t that easy.’
‘We tried to take control of the situation and obviously they let us get away. I think going forward they need to probably hang in there a bit more, fight it out and see whether they can create more opportunities.
‘They did create some pressure for us in patches but that wasn’t consistent. We rode those situations much better, especially yesterday and today.’
The double-century was Jayawardene’s seventh in Tests, moving him into a tie for fourth on that list with England’s Wally Hammond, one behind teammate Kumar Sangakkara. Only Brian Lara (9) and Donald Bradman (12) had more.
It was also Jayawardene’s 33rd Test hundred, pulling him level with Sangakkara in terms of triple-figure scores, though he was still willing to concede the advantage to his fellow former captain.
‘It’s definitely a healthy competition. If you see the number of matches, Kumar is way below me so definitely he has got the upper hand. I am glad because he has set tremendous standards for the rest of the guys to follow, especially when it comes to batting consistently.’
The competition also seems to have a positive effect on the team’s younger batsmen, particularly Kaushal Silva and Kithuruwan Vithanage, who both also hit hundred in the first innings.
‘It’s tremendous, I think, especially the way Kaushi [Silva] is batting. I think he waited for quite a long time for this opportunity.’
‘That’s the first time I batted with [Vithanage] because the last series [against Bangladesh in Sri Lanka] I didn’t play. He looked very promising. He is a very confident player, the way he was striking the ball,’ said Jayawardene of the batsman with whom he shared an unbeaten 176-run partnership to see Sri Lanka to their declaration.
‘So all in all we’ve got a very good set of young players and we need to guide them in tough situation so that they carry forward the good work we have done.’
-With New Age input
