Exactly 16 years since his Test debut at the Galle International Stadium, Angelo Mathews was back at the venue to mark his last game in the whites, sealing a red-ball career that changed the landscape of Sri Lankan cricket over the last 10-plus years. Mathews, who is 38 and one of Sri Lanka’s most successful test batsmen currently in the team, also announced his retirement in the test format before the first test currently underway against Bangladesh, leaving colleagues and fans paying a touching tribute to him. However, Mathews has a very unique record against Bangladesh.
THE GUARD OF HONOUR FOR ANGELO MATHEWS ON HIS LAST MATCH. 🫡
— Tanuj (@ImTanujSingh) June 17, 2025
– One of the Finest of this Era..!!! 🌟 pic.twitter.com/KFxRMEvitQ
A Rare Record
Angelo Mathews is the only current world cricketer to have been dismissed after scoring 99 and 199 in Test cricket. In 2009, he batted against India in Mumbai and was dismissed on 99 runs, a single run short of a century. Decades later, in 2022, he struck a long and hard innings against Bangladesh in Chattogram, but once again, he was unlucky; he was out after scoring 199 runs, one short of a double century. This is a rare record demonstrating his talent as well as the unfortunate situations he had to encounter in his career.
Test Career
Having played 118 Tests entering this encounter, Mathews ends up as the third-highest run getter in Tests in the history of Sri Lanka cricket, trailing only the great Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. His runs total is 8167 with an excellent average of 44.62 and 16 centuries, and 45 fifties and above; figures that talk of his consistency and durability. He is further one of only seven Sri Lankan players to have played more than 100 Tests in Test cricket, with most of the others coming after him (Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas, Sanath Jayasuriya, and Dimuth Karunaratne).
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