Sri Lankan legends Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara had featured in many major finals but never came out with the silverware and the stage is perfectly set for the infamous pair to end their career in the shortest format with the glory in hand in their last T20I today.
The two veteran Sri Lankans share 26,811 limited-overs international runs, 35 hundreds and 172 half-centuries, but, frustratingly, zero ICC-event trophies.
The episode of their inexplicable losing series started in the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy. Sri Lanka playing at home breezed into the final against India, but rain intervened and the trophy was shared by the finalists. Sangakkara chipped in 26 and Mahela added 77 as Sri Lanka posted 222 in 50 overs but the match was abandoned with India on 38 for one after nine overs.
Since then the vastly experienced pair helped Sri Lanka reach the finals of the 2007 and 2011 ICC World Cup followed by the finals in the 2009 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20. On all occasions they came second, and if that remains the case even today then it will be a matter of great regret after they bid adieu from the game.
Both the players led their country to the finals of the World T20 in the past with Sangakkara in 2009 in England when Sri Lanka lost to Pakistan and Jayawardene in 2012 in Sri Lanka when his team was beaten by West Indies.
Sangakkara scored 1330 runs in 55 T20Is till date and averages 30.22 while Jayawardene is Sri Lanka’s leading run scorer in the format having made 1469 runs in 54 games. Jayawardene featured in four World Cup finals - two T20 and as many ODI – and every time he could just watch his opponents celebrate in Bridgetown 2007, in Lord’s 2009, in Mumbai 2011, and most painfully in Colombo 2012.
The trauma of the two Sri Lankan stalwarts are well known in the cricket arena and it was categorically exposed in the words of West Indian captain Darren Sammy after his team was thrown out of the meet by the D/L method against Sri Lanka. “There were two gentlemen [Sangakkara and Jayawardene] who gave a lot not only to Sri Lankan cricket but to cricket as a whole. May be the Almighty wants them to win a World Cup and leave on a high. Probably, God wants them to win a World Cup and that`s why He put his hand in this so that they get another match,” said Sammy in the post match conference after rain helped Sri Lanka win the semifinal.
They have also contributed to the team in all the finals they appeared, may that be with bat or fielding. In the final of 2009 WT20 Sangakkara scored 64 and Mahela made just one, in the 2012 WT20 final Sangakkara added 22 while Mahela contributed 33, in the final of the 2007 World Cup Mahela scored 19 while Sangakkara chipped in 54 and in the 2011 World Cup final at Mumbai Sangakkara added 48 while Mahela remained 103 not out, with 13 boundaries in 88 balls with a strike rate of 117.04.
It was the highest score in the 2011 World Cup but still unfortunately, Mahela could not join the club of Clive Lloyd, Vivian Richards, Aravinda de Silva and Ricky Ponting as he remained the only centurion in a World Cup final in the losing side.
Both Mahela and Sangakkara looked very determined in every match in the edition. The youngsters of the team know the value of the duo and get to learn a lot from the two. A successful bilateral series, the Asia Cup are the two trophies they took in the last couple months, but the big question is will fortune favour the braves today?
