It took me a while to accept this but now, I totally believe it. Mahela Jayawardene is the best ever test batsman Sri Lanka has produced to date. That fact was confirmed today by Mahela himself with his epic innings against the Englishmen at Galle. An innings played when the chips were down and Sri Lanka perilously close to getting humiliated at their own den. In the end his solo effort took Sri Lanka 's score to respectability and can now eye a score of 300 for the first innings when at one time , even 250 was looking impossible.
Many could argue that I am wrong and could say that Sangakkara is better than Mahela . They could even say that legendary Aravinda Silva should be first compared to the rest. Yet, when you compare the records of Sanga, Mahela and Aravinda, Mahela comes first, so there could be no arguments on who's the best.
There was a time when people called Mahela a player who only scores centuries in Sri Lanka and cannot score any overseas. He proved every one of them wrong by scoring centuries in England and even in Australia. He has scored more test runs that any other Sri Lankan batsman and has always been there to save our team when we are in crunch situations. Just like today.
Even if he gets out first ball tomorrow, it really doesn't matter. His 168 today is one of the best innings I have seen by a test batsman under pressure and it makes it more special since he is the captain of the team.
Hopefully, this innings by Mahela would lead Sri Lanka to victory. If it doesn’t, it won't matter since we were really privileged to see one of the most epic innings by a test batsman. The guy is simply the best in Sri Lanka and a rare, awesome gem to world cricket.
Cheers!!
I like your article on Mahela
ReplyDeleteThanks a Lot Hiran :) The guy deserves all the credit he gets. Just an Awesome Cricketer ! :)
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