It was at the SSC that Jayawardene scored a monumental 374 during a world-record partnership of 624 with Sangakkara (287) against a South African attack that included Dale Steyn and Makhya Ntini in 2006.
His 2,921 runs in 27 Tests at the SSC are the most by any batsman at a single ground. He averaged 74.89 at the SSC with 11 centuries and 50 half-centuries. Jayawardene looked good to continue for a few more years after making a fluent 165 against Hashim Amla's South African team at the SSC last month.
At age 37 and with hundreds of innings behind him, Mahela Jayawardene tried something new in his next-to-last test match a move typical of his innovative attitude when it involves pursuing victories for Sri Lanka.
Jayawardene is one of only five batsmen to score more than 11,000 runs in both Test and one-day cricket the others being Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and team-mate Kumar Sangakkara.One of cricket's most elegant and enduring batsmen takes an average of 50 he has 11,756 runs from 250 test innings.
Jayawardene broke into test cricket in 1997 on the strength of his solid batting technique but a broadening of his stroke-play meant he also established himself as an accomplished limited-overs batsman.
Jayawardene broke into test cricket in 1997 on the strength of his solid batting technique but a broadening of his stroke-play meant he also established himself as an accomplished limited-overs batsman.
