Sri Lanka Mystery Spinner Ajantha Mendis Announces Retirement
Ajantha Mendis took six wickets and was awarded the man-of-the-match for leading Sri Lanka to the 2008 Asia Cup triumph over India.
Highlights
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Ajantha Mendis took six wickets in the 2008 Asia Cup final
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He became the fastest bowler to take 50 ODI wickets
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The mystery spinner ended his journey with 288 international wickets
Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis on Wednesday brought down the curtain on his international career marred by injuries, the International Cricket Council (ICC) confirmed via a tweet. Mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis came to the fore for his carrom ball which troubled many batsmen. Test great Rahul Dravid was his first scalp in the longest format of the game and he ended up with the figures of 8/132 in the match -- the best by any Sri Lanka bowler on Test debut. Since making an international debut in 2008, Ajantha Mendis went on to feature in 19 Tests, 87 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 39 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).
Mendis was the man-of-the-match in the Asia Cup 2008 final against India. He deceived the Indian batsmen, including the likes of Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh during their heydays, to return figures of 6/13. It was his brilliant bowling performance that spun Sri Lanka to the Asia Cup 2008 triumph after defeating India by 100 runs.
He also went on to become the fastest bowler to take 50 ODI wickets.
Mendis' unpredictable variations along with his carrom ball helped him leave a mark in every format and the T20Is was no different. In the 2012 World T20, Mendis returned figures of 6/8 -- a record for the best figures in T20Is.
On his retirement, he was congratulated by Sri Lanka all-rounder Angelo Mathews for his short but "great career".
The mystery spinner ended his journey in international cricket with 288 wickets.
Sri Lanka Cricket Team
Ajantha Mendis