Sri Lankan duo Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara retired from ODI cricket

Veteran cricketers of Sri Lanka Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara on 18 March 2015 retired from the One Day International (ODI) format of Cricket.

The two veteran cricketers retired after the World Cup quarter-final match against South Africa played at Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia. In the quarter-final, Sri Lanka lost the match by 9 wickets to South Africa.  

Both the much celebrated cricketers of Sri Lanka had earlier announced that 2015 World Cup would be their final ODI.

Sangakkara and Jayawadene were part of the Sri Lankan cricket team that reached the final of the World Cup 2003 and 2007 but lost the final.

Sangakkara played 404 ODIs and scored 14234 runs at an average of 41.98. In the current session of 2015 World Cup of cricket, he created a record of four consecutive ODI hundreds.

Sangakkara who scored 541 runs in 7 matches of this edition of the World Cup is still the highest run-scorer of the tournament so far. He is the sixth player to score 500 runs in the World Cup.

Earlier on 8 March 2015, Sangakkara had announced his retirement from Test Cricket. He will retire after playing the three-match Test series against India in August 2015. In his Test match career till date, he has scored 38 centuries in 130 matches and 51 half-centuries in 129 matches.

Jayawardene, on the other hand, played 448 ODIs and scored 12650 runs at an average of 33.37. He retired from the Test Cricket on 18 August 2014. In his Test match career, he scored 11814 in 149 matches.