SLC to felicitate Mathews on his 100th Test

by Rex Clementine

Sri Lanka Cricket will felicitate Angelo Mathews on the morning of the second Test against Pakistan in Galle on Sunday for reaching 100 Test matches. The former captain will become the sixth Sri Lankan to feature in 100 Test matches joining an exclusive club of legends like Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Chaminda Vaas.

SLC officials said that Mathews’ family will be invited for the occasion. Mathews, who incidentally began his Test career in Galle against the same opposition 13 years ago has been one of the greats of Sri Lankan cricket and he’s on the verge of scoring 7000 Test runs.

One of Sri Lanka’s most successful captains, at the age of 26 he guided Sri Lanka to a historic Test series win in England  in 2014. In that series, he scored a hundred at Lord’s in his first appearance at the Home of Cricket and then backed it up with a stunning 160 at Headingley with a back to the wall knock. Mathews inspirational leadership was on show again in 2016 when Sri Lanka completed a 3-0 whitewash of Australia captained by Steve Smith.

Sri Lanka need to win the second Test starting Sunday to square the two match series They suffered a shocking four wicket defeat in the first Test as Pakistan chased down a tough target of 342. The team was forced to withdraw spinner Maheesh Theekshana due to injury while off-spinner Lakshitha Manasinghe has been added to the squad. Opening batsman Pathum Nissanka also joins the squad having recovered from COVID.