He has announced his retirement from International cricket with this match, ending a 22 year career in International cricket. 13 years ago at the venue of today’s match, the Oval, Sanath made his highest score against England making 213 runs off 278 balls on a one-off Test.
Sanath, after captaining his school team of St. Servatius College, Matara joined the Sri Lanka cricket team in 1989. He is the only player to score more than 13,000 runs and capture more than 300 wickets in One Day Internationals. He is also regarded by many critics and experts as one of the best all-rounder in the history of the game
He used to hold a very unique record almost never to be achieved by a single cricket player. He held the fastest fifty (against Pakistan 17 balls) fastest 100 and fastest 150 (against England in 95 balls) in ODI cricket. Though he lost the fastest 100 to Shahid Afridi, he still holds the other two records.
Cricket commentators say that Sanath along with partner Romesh Kaluwitharana, revolutionized One Day International batting with his aggressive tactics during the 1996 Cricket World Cup, a strategy they first tried on the preceding tour of Australia. The tactic used was to take advantage of the early fielding restrictions by smashing the opening bowlers to all parts of the cricket ground, particularly by lofting their deliveries over the mandatory infielders, rather than the established tactic of building up momentum gradually.
Given below are some of the achievements made by Sanath in international cricket:
• He holds the fifth-highest ODI innings, 189 runs.
• He currently holds the record for fastest fifty in ODIs, scored off just 17 balls.
• Jayasuriya holds the record for second highest fours in an ODI innings, 24 fours.
• He is currently the second highest run scorer in ODIs with 13,428 runs.
• He is the only batsman in history to have two consecutive ODI scores above 150.
• Jayasuriya holds the record for the fastest 150 in an ODI innings, off 95 balls against England in 2006.
• He is currently the third highest centurion in ODIs with 28 centuries.
• He has 14 Test centuris against almost all cricketing nations.
• Jayasuriya has second most Man of the Match awards (48) in ODI cricket
• He was also the first player to play in 400 ODIs matches.
• He is the third batsman in Test cricket to hit 6 fours in one over. He did this against England in his last Test innings.
• He is the oldest player to have scored a ODI century, performing the feat against India at Dumballa, Sri Lanka on 28 January 2009. He was 39 years 212 days, beating Geoffrey Boycott’s record of 39 years 51 days.
• Probably the most remarkable of all of his records stretches across all three recognized forms of international cricket. The Sri Lankan cricket team holds the record for the Highest Innings Totals in Tests, One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals at one time. In each of these Highest Innings Totals, Sanath Jayasuriya was the leading scorer for Sri Lanka.
