Announces retirement after India Test series in August
Sydney: Kumar Sangakkara became only the second batsman after Indian icon Sachin Tendulkar to score 14,000 One-day International runs when the Sri Lankan veteran reached the landmark against Australia in a World Cup Pool A match here on Sunday. He also became the first batsman to score hundreds in three consecutive World Cup matches.
Sangakkara was 39 short of reaching the milestone when he came out to bat at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Chasing a mammoth 377-run target, Sangakkara put up a spirited show with his fluent century and kept Sri Lanka in the hunt till he was dismissed.
Left-hander Sangakkara, 37, got to the feat with a paddled two to fine leg off spinner Glenn Maxwell in the 14th over of Sri Lankan innings. This was Sangakkara’s 378th innings in 402 ODIs.
Sangakkara has been in prolific touch and in his last two outings scored back to back centuries.
He scored a 73-ball ton against Bangladesh and then notched up another impressive hundred off 70 balls against England.
Both his hundreds proved to be match winning ones and gave Sri Lanka much needed fillip after their poor start against New Zealand. The three centuries took Sangakkara’s tally to 24 hundreds and he has the most centuries for Sri Lanka after Sanath Jayasuriya’s 28 tons.
The classy left-handed batsman features fourth on the list of all-time most hundreds in ODIs. He also became the first Sri Lankan batsman to notch up 14,000 runs in ODIs.
Sangakkara, who will play his final ODI at the ongoing World Cup, quit the shortest format of the game after winning the World T20 last year. “There are Test matches in June and July, and I will be done by the end of August. A series or two in June and in August, and that’s it,” Sangakkara said.
The former Sri Lanka skipper said it was important for both him and the team to build momentum in the tournament. (PTI)