Jayawardene keen to end captaincy on a high

Wednesday, 23 January 2013 00:33 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Age: MAHELA Jayawardene says he would relish the chance to end his international captaincy career by leading Sri Lanka to its second one-day series victory in Australia.

Jayawardene’s decision to relinquish the Twenty20 captaincy late last year to Angelo Mathews, his expected full-time successor, has ensured Wednesday’s match in Hobart will be his 183rd and final match at the helm of Sri Lanka. That record, compiled in stints since April 2004 and involving 38 Tests and 145 limited-overs internationals, will leave the 35-year-old entrenched in second position among Sri Lanka’s longest-serving captains, behind only Arjuna Ranatunga with 249 (56 Tests, 193 ODIs).

‘’That would be great, fantastic,’’ the elegant batsman said of the prospect of sealing a commanding 3-1 series victory against Australia in his last match as captain.

‘’I’m quite happy the way we’ve been playing in the past three games. We controlled all three games the way we wanted to, so I’m pretty confident coming to Hobart.’’

In the 14 ODIs Australia has hosted Sri Lanka across the past three seasons it has won only five - albeit two of those five coming in last year’s tri-series finals - with Sri Lanka winning eight and last Sunday’s match being washed out.

Irrespective of whether Sri Lanka wins or draws the series Jayawardene said he was proud of the way his team had recovered from its three-Test whitewash and its thrashing in the opening one-dayer in Melbourne.