Mathews becomes Sri Lanka’s third highest run-getter in Tests

• Reaches milestone of 7,000 runs
• Dimuth surpasses Jayasuriya as leading Test opener

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews lays into an off drive during his innings of 47 on the first day of the first cricket Test against New Zealand at Christchurch on Thursday

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne reaches 50 and becomes his country’s most successful Test opener

When former captain Angelo Mathews scored 47 in Sri Lanka’s first innings of the first cricket Test against New Zealand at Christchurch yesterday, he became Sri Lanka’s third highest run-getter in the country’s history after two other legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

Mathews came into the Test match needing 47 runs to become the third Sri Lankan to reach 7,000 Test runs. He made exactly 47 before being dismissed soon after reaching the milestone. During his innings he surpassed another Sri Lankan cricketing legend Sanath Jayasuriya’s aggregate of 6,973 made from 101 Tests.

In Sri Lanka’s all-time list Mathews stands third with 7,000 runs from 101 Tests behind Sangakkara 12,400 runs from 134 Tests and Jayawardene 11,814 runs from 149 Tests. 

Next in line is the captain Dimuth Karunaratne who also took his Test aggregate past Jayasuriya’s during his knock of 50. He has 6,073 runs from 83 Tests. Karunaratne also became Sri Lanka’s most successful Test opener when he carried his tally to 5,980 runs from 95 Tests surpassing Jayasuriya’s mark of 5,932 from 95 Tests.

After Karunaratne it seems too far- fetched for anyone else getting closer to the 7,000-run mark because the next best from the current lot is Dinesh Chandimal with 4,975 runs from 71 Tests.

The 35-year-old veteran Mathews one could say is the last of a breed of top quality batsmen Sri Lanka has produced over the years. With the advent of T20I and T20 franchise cricket, the current set of Sri Lankan batsmen have forgotten how to build an innings and to occupy the crease for long periods of time. Time and again they have fallen victim to their own indiscretion of T20 strokes forgetting that they are playing a contest of over five days where patience is the key.

Sri Lanka Cricket is also at fault for concentrating too much on arranging money-spinning white ball cricket (T20I and ODI) ahead of the traditional red ball cricket that has led to less exposure of international cricket to our Test players. For example, Sri Lanka are slated to play only five Test matches for the entire 2023 calendar year which when compared to other top Test playing nations is a pittance.

For Mathews to reach this milestone is a testament to his perseverance. Since making his Test debut in 2009, he has become a dedicated savant of the game for Sri Lanka. For a larger part of his career he has missed playing for his country due to injuries, which any other cricketer would have found hard to endure and led to him quitting the game in frustration. But not Mathews, whose zest to play cricket at the highest level is quite high. 

Time and again he has also reminded the national selectors that he is available to play white ball cricket although they have continued to ignore him, trying to pursue with a team of youngsters that has proved quite detrimental to Sri Lanka’s image in ODI cricket. 

With a fifty-over World Cup looming in another seven months the national selectors have come to find much to their mortification that their policy with youth has failed miserably and that they need some experienced hands especially in the middle order batting.

Mathews now stands on the cusp of being recalled to the ODI side for the three matches against New Zealand that would follow the ongoing two-Test series, which could mean that he is in the selectors’ radar once again. That perhaps would be a personal triumph for Mathews who had to put up with quite a few raw deals in his illustrious career.