Sanath Jayasuriya's Final Test Inning

It was only a few day back when I was talking about the next set of retirements (stating the obvious I might have been). I spoke too soon, as yesterday morning there was rumour that Sanath would be retiring at the end of this first test against England. I also read that there was a rumour that the selectors had offered Sanath the opportunity to retire rather than be dropped from the test team as his performance in the last 16 tests have been poor. In any case by the end of play it was official. Sanath Jayasuriya had just played his final test innings and he did it in classic Jayasuriya style. He required 65 runs to bring his test avg back above 40. Sanath answered his critics with a smashing 78 in 106 balls consisting of 10 fours (6 of which came from a single Jimmy Anderson over) and 1 six. If you missed it check it out, if you saw it watch it again.

He is probably the most explosive and influential batsman Sri Lanka has ever seen. In world cricket people believe he invented the attacking style of cricket seen in the modern game. Although he is still part of the ODI team it can’t be long before he quits this too. All I know is that his boots are huge and there isn’t anybody with big enough feet at the moment to replace him.