Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene end 148, 5,969 ODI parternship for Sri Lanka

Prolific batsman fail to get swansong 14 year partner ship deserved

(Getty Images)

It is exactly 14 years, eight months and nine days since a 22-year-old left hander from Kandy and a 23-year-old right hander from Colombo, first found themselves batting together for their country.

Now, 148 ODI partnerships and 5969 runs later, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have done so for the last time.

A nine-wicket thrashing and a quarter-final exit was not the ending that their careers deserved, but then they have had plenty of those already, from the World T20 title in April to their last game on home soil ending with a dismissal ‘stumped Sangakkara, bowled Jayawardene.’

Neither was it a truly fitting individual swansong for either man. Jayawardene, could only last 16 balls, a masterful player of spin seemingly totally undone by Imran Tahir’s far from world class bowling. As for Sangakkara, such are the standards he has set recently, anything less than a fifth consecutive ODI hundred was always going to feel a little disappointing although his rearguard 45 did ensure he leaves the tournament with a scarcely believable average of 108.20.

The pair in action during the defeat to South Africa (Getty Images)

But then this was never really about one last hurrah for Sri Lanka’s favourite sons. They are far beyond that, their scarcely rivalled careers will leave a lasting impression on the world game. Instead this was a time to reflect on two men who could scarcely have done more to raise the profile of cricket in their country.

There was to be no fourth consecutive World Cup semi-final for the pair, no last shot at the prize that has so tantalisingly eluded them for a decade and a half, it was perhaps a fittingly understated end to the international careers of two such understated men.

This was a send-off stripped of sublime cover drives, of laps of honour or raucous celebration, instead there was little more than a post-match embrace before these brothers-in-arms slipped gently away into the Sydney night.

But do not stand at their cricketing graves and weep just yet, Sangakkara has not finished with Test cricket and will also join Surrey this summer as their overseas player, while Jayawardene has a T20 spell lined up with Sussex.

“Oh, if anyone can say that they’ve enjoyed playing against me and playing with me, I’ll be more than happy,” was Sangakkara’s typically humble response to the curtain falling on his one-day career.

And few men can have enjoyed playing alongside him as much as Jayawardene, only Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly have made more ODI runs together, but then they cannot come close to matching what is surely cricket’s greatest ever bromance – for starters they don’t own a seafood restaurant together.

While the duo’s departure from the global stage leaves a substantial hole in Sri Lankan cricket, the happiness and inspiration their legacy has given to millions can only have helped the process of filling it.