Angelo Mathews Becomes 6th Sri Lankan To Play 100 Tests, Receives Special Cap From Chaminda Vaas

Angelo Mathews Becomes 6th Sri Lankan To Play 100 Tests, Receives Special Cap From Chaminda Vaas (Image Source: Twitter)

Veteran Angelo Mathews on Sunday became the sixth Sri Lankan cricketer to play 100 Test matches when he took the field in the second and final game against Pakistan, here.

The 35-year old received a cap to mark the occasion from Chaminda Vaas, the bowling coach. Interestingly, both Mathews and Vaas went to the same school and now both have played 100 Tests for Sri Lanka.

"Presentation: Angelo Mathews receives commemorative cap and a special gift before play to mark his 100th Test for," tweeted Sri Lanka Cricket along with pictures.

Before Mathews, five Sri Lankan players -- Mahela Jayawardene (149 matches), Kumar Sangakkara (134), Muttiah Muralitharan (133 ), Chaminda Vaas (111 ), Sanath Jayasuriya (110 ) -- have played more than 100 Tests for the country.

Mathews, who made his test debut in 2009 and is on the verge of 7,000 test runs, wants to score 10,000 runs in the red-ball cricket.

"It would be nice to get to 10,000 Test runs. Not many guys have done that and that's something that I want to achieve," Mathews had said on the eve of the landmark match.

Asked about his inspiration, Mathews took the name of England fast bowler James Anderson, who made a comeback to the England Test side, under the captaincy of Ben Stokes, just a month back in the English summer.

Angelo Mathews becomes the sixth Sri Lankan player to feature in 100 Tests!#SLvPAK #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/8vtyeLZoNL

— CRICKETNMORE (@cricketnmore) July 24, 2022

"Jimmy Anderson is my inspiration. At the age of 40, he's still delivering and he wants to do it for a couple of more years. It's the drive that you have. This is not going to stop here and I still have a few more years left. Age is just a number and I'll work on my fitness," he said.