Nice to be associated with elite cricketers of the past, says Kumar

Chris DHAMBARAGE

CRICKET: Sri Lanka’s vice captain Kumar Sangakkara said that it is nice to be associated with some of the elite cricketers of the past after having scored back to back centuries on the third day of the third and final cricket Test match against Bangladesh at the Asgiriya International Stadium in Kandy, yesterday.

Sangakkara stroked an unbeaten 222 runs in 396 minutes with 28 fours following his unbeaten 200 in the second Test match at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium last week which helped him to win the man of the match award.

The stylish left-hander joined a select band of players who have scored successive double hundreds namely Sir Don Bradman, Walley Hammond, Graeme Smith, Vinod Kambli and Ricky Ponting. In addition Sangakkara equalled former captain Marvan Atapattu’s record of having scored six double centuries for his country.

Sangakkara achieved this feat while playing in his 67th Test match with Don Bradmon well ahead in the list with a total of 12 double hundreds followed by Brian Lara (9) and Walley Hammond (7). This was of course a special occasion for Sangakkara who was playing on his home grounds.

He said that this double hundred was a more fluent one which had some rhythm in contrast to his previous effort.

He said that this time he batted more confidently after a slow start and was always certain of achieving his goal.

Sangakkara also said that he was disappointed that skipper Mahela Jayawardena could not reach his double century having batted so brilliantly until then.

Sangakkara noted that there is a long way to go in connection to records and milestones as still there is more things to be ironed out at the nets.

He commended the coaching of Trevor Penny for encouraging him to play more shots similar to the one day cricket.