Perfect farewell for Jayawardena

Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa was among the 4000-odd home fans that turned up at Colombo's Sinhalese Sports Club to bid goodbye to one of modern cricket's great batsmen. Jayawardena is one of only five batsmen to score more than 11,000 runs in both Test and ODI cricket, the others being Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Kumar Sangakkara. He finished with 11,814 runs in 149 Tests with 34 centuries, but his average dropped from 50.02 to 49.84 after making 4 and 54 in his final Test.

His teammates lifted him on their shoulders as the entire squad did a victory lap of the ground.

Jayawardena was also a shrewd captain, leading Sri Lanka in 38 Tests in two phases, the first from 2006 to 2009 and then again for a year in 2012. Under his leadership, Sri Lanka won 18 Tests, lost 12 and drew eight. As captain, he averaged 59.11 with the bat with 14 centuries.