87-488: Angelo Davis Mathews ( Sinhala : ඇන්ජලෝ මැතිව්ස් ; Tamil : அஞ்செலோ மத்தியூஸ் ; born 2 June 1987) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer and a former captain of the national cricket team in all formats. Mathews plays all formats for Sri Lanka. Mathews was a member of the team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and was part of the team that made the finals of 2011 Cricket World Cup , 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20 . Mathews and Lasith Malinga hold
174-662: A Dravidian origin for this word. ), dola for pig in Vedda and offering in Sinhala. Other common words are rera for wild duck, and gala for stones (in toponyms used throughout the island, although others have also suggested a Dravidian origin). There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhala, such as olluva for head, kakula for leg, bella for neck and kalava for thighs, that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka. The oldest Sinhala grammar, Sidatsan̆garavā , written in
261-546: A career best innings haul of 7/19 for Worcestershire against Essex , the issue of Ajmal's bowling action was again raised by former England captain Michael Vaughan and current Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad . The latter opined that Ajmal's action in competitive cricket may differ from that which he used during ICC testing. However, as part of the testing procedure, match footage is used alongside videos made "in
348-450: A doosra you have to work extra special hard [sic]. A right-arm off spinner, Ajmal's stock delivery turns into right-handed batsman but he also frequently uses the doosra which turns the other way, and he generally bowls flatter than most off spinners. The doosra has been an effective tool for Ajmal as batsmen have often failed to pick it. Explaining his bowling style in 2012, Ajmal said "If I bowl with flight I cannot bowl well. If I bowl at
435-495: A five-match home ODI series 3–2 against Zimbabwe . Matthews said the defeat was "one of the lowest points in my career" and he stepped down as captain of the team in all three formats the following day. On 4 December 2017 against India , Mathews scored his eighth test century. His century came during a tough time for Sri Lanka's innings, where he built the innings slowly with captain Dinesh Chandimal . Finally Sri Lanka
522-616: A high-quality pace attack consisting of James Anderson and Stuart Broad – in the famous Sri Lanka tour of England and Ireland, 2014. He has also flourished with the added responsibility of captaincy, averaging 86.62 in 13 matches. In February 2013, Mathews became Sri Lanka's youngest-ever Test captain at 25, after having been groomed for the post for two years. He captained the Lankan team in its monumental Test series win in England (2014). His highest Test score (200 off 428 balls) came in
609-516: A huge defeat, where the match ended in three days. During the match, Mathews contracted COVID-19 and ruled out of the Test. However, on 9 July 2022, he scored 52 runs in the first innings of the second Test against Australia. Later Sri Lanka posted a total of 554 courtesy of Chandimal's double hundred. Finally, Sri Lanka won the match by an innings and 39 runs, marking Sri Lanka's first-ever innings victory in Test cricket against Australia. In July 2022, in
696-748: A lab" and compared to ensure it is identical. Also, umpires are able to super-impose match footage on the testing footage to check that a bowlers' action has not subsequently deteriorated. This has been done in Ajmal's case and his action was found to be identical. Ajmal contacted the ECB to request an explanation for Broad's comments. In July 2014, he played for the MCC side in the Bicentenary Celebration match at Lord's . On 13 November 2017, he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Ajmal
783-495: A lead to Sri Lanka but England won the match by 7 wickets. Second test match of England tour of Sri Lanka 2021 , Mathews scored his 11th test century. It was Mathews's first test ton on home soil since 2015 and his first test ton at Gall International Cricket Stadium . He scored 110 runs hitting 11 boundaries to put a big total to the team in the First innings. He is the highest run scorer for Sri Lanka in this series. But England won
870-519: A partnership with Lasith Malinga , who also scored his only half-century. Sri Lanka was in trouble when he came into the crease, but finally won the match. In this match, Mathews along with Malinga, recorded the highest ninth-wicket partnership in ODI history by scoring 132 runs for the ninth wicket. Mathews hit back-to-back centuries against England at Lord's and Headingley to seal Sri Lanka's first-ever Test series win in England. Under him, Sri Lanka also won
957-779: A period of prior bilingualism: "The earliest type of contact in Sri Lanka, not considering the aboriginal Vedda languages, was that which occurred between South Dravidian and Sinhala. It seems plausible to assume prolonged contact between these two populations as well as a high degree of bilingualism. This explains why Sinhala looks deeply South Dravidian for an Indo-Aryan language. There is corroboration in genetic findings." In addition to many Tamil loanwords , several phonetic and grammatical features also present in neighbouring Dravidian languages set modern spoken Sinhala apart from its Northern Indo-Aryan relatives. These features are evidence of close interactions with Dravidian speakers. Some of
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#17327971453591044-482: A quicker speed I can then use variations in pace. If I take 70% of my wickets with the doosra why should I not bowl it? Whether you bowl a doosra or an offbreak, the ball should be bowled on the right line and one should take a wicket with it." The International Cricket Council on 9 September 2014 banned Ajmal over his bowling action. The statement said, "An independent analysis has found the bowling action of Pakistan's off-spinner Saeed Ajmal to be illegal and, as such,
1131-743: A specialist batter in the Test side. However, for the balance of the team, he still plays as a batting allrounder in limited-overs cricket. A more than useful strike rate of 84.06 has made him a damaging prospect in the final overs of the Sri Lankan innings. He made his international debut in a One Day International against Zimbabwe in November 2008 and made his Test debut against Pakistan at Galle in July 2009. Angelo Mathews made his Test debut in Pakistan tour of Sri Lanka, in 2009. The Test also marked
1218-695: A strong position. Finally, Sri Lanka won the match by 10 wickets and Mathews won the Player of the Series award for his consistent performance. He was the highest run-scorer in the series scoring 344 runs including two centuries. He was later voted as the ICC Men's Player of the Month for May 2022, becoming the first Sri Lankan to achieve the feat. In the Australian Test series in July 2022, Sri Lanka suffered
1305-495: Is Roman Catholic and was educated at St. Joseph's College , Colombo. Mathews is married to his long time partner, Heshanie Silva. The wedding reception was held on 18 July 2013 at Cinnamon Grand Hotel with the presence of former president Mahinda Rajapakse . They have one son and one daughter. In the Indian Premier League cricket, he played for Delhi Daredevils in the 2017 Indian Premier League season. He
1392-444: Is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who played all forms of the game. He is a right-arm off-spin bowler who bats right handed. At domestic level in Pakistan he represented Faisalabad , with whom he won the 2005 ABN-AMRO Twenty-20 Cup ; Khan Research Laboratories; and Islamabad. Ajmal made his One Day International debut for Pakistan in July 2008 at the age of 30, and a year later played his first Test . In 2009, he
1479-463: Is a conspicuous example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia . Sinhala ( Siṁhala ) is a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indo-Aryan ( Eḷu ) word is Sīhala . The name is a derivative of siṁha , the Sanskrit word for 'lion'. The name is sometimes glossed as 'abode of lions', and attributed to a supposed former abundance of lions on the island. According to
1566-599: Is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka , who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million speakers as of 2001. It is written using the Sinhala script , which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. Sinhala
1653-484: Is divided into four epochs: The most important phonetic developments of Sinhala include: According to Wilhelm Geiger , an example of a possible Western feature in Sinhala is the retention of initial /v/ which developed into /b/ in the Eastern languages (e.g. Sanskrit viṁśati "twenty", Sinhala visi- , Hindi bīs ). This is disputed by Muhammad Shahidullah who says that Sinhala Prakrit branched off from
1740-550: Is one of the most sought out players in the Premier League world, having been bought by the Pune Warriors for US$ 950,000. In March 2018, he was named as the captain of Kandy's squad for the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament . The following month, he was also named as the captain for Kandy's squad for the 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament . In August 2018, he was named as the captain of Kandy's squad
1827-412: Is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, alongside Tamil . Along with Pali , it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Early forms of the Sinhala language are attested as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions, still retaining long vowels and aspirated consonants, is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi , a regional associate of
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#17327971453591914-658: The 2018 SLC T20 League . In October 2020, he was drafted by the Colombo Kings for the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League . In July 2022, he was signed by the Colombo Stars for the third edition of the Lanka Premier League . Mathews began his international career in late 2008 with ambitions of becoming a genuine allrounder, but has since given primacy to his batting (to diminish his workload and avoid injuries), and effectively plays as
2001-615: The 2023 Cricket World Cup in India . Mathews made his List A debut for Sri Lanka Under-23 against New Zealand A at Police Park Ground, Colombo in September 2005. He captained the Sri Lankan cricket team in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka. He later made his first-class debut for Colombo Cricket Club in November 2006. Mathews was born in Colombo , to Tamil father Tyronne Mathews and Burgher mother Monica Mathews. Mathews
2088-575: The BBC , ESPNCricinfo published detailed information on the issue after a thorough investigation by journalist George Dobell with extensive discussion with ICC having been conducted. The resulting articles underlined the fact that Ajmal's bowling action falls well within the legal bounds set by the ICC for bowlers. Ajmal was signed by Adelaide Strikers for the 2012 Big Bash League in Australia. Following
2175-729: The Middle Indian Prakrits that had been used during the time of the Buddha . The most closely related languages are the Vedda language (an endangered, indigenous creole still spoken by a minority of Sri Lankans, mixing Sinhala with an isolate of unknown origin and from which Old Sinhala borrowed various aspects into its main Indo-Aryan substrate), and the Maldivian language . It has two main varieties, written and spoken, and
2262-587: The UNESCO National Commission of Ceylon According to Wilhelm Geiger , Sinhala has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of the differences can be explained by the substrate influence of the parent stock of the Vedda language . Sinhala has many words that are only found in Sinhala, or shared between Sinhala and Vedda and not etymologically derivable from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan. Possible examples include kola for leaf in Sinhala and Vedda (although others suggest
2349-464: The 13th century CE, recognised a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhala. The grammar lists naram̆ba (to see) and koḷom̆ba (fort or harbour) as belonging to an indigenous source. Koḷom̆ba is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo . The consistent left branching syntax and the loss of aspirated stops in Sinhala is attributed to a probable South Dravidian substratum effect. This has been explained by
2436-640: The 15-degree tolerance allowed by the International Cricket Council . Later that year, the Pakistan Cricket Board named a pool of 30 players from which they would choose their final squad for the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 , held in June. Initially left out, Ajmal was one of three players added to the list, replacing players who were dropped because they were contracted with the controversial Indian Cricket League . In
2523-493: The 25th over of the Sri Lankan batting innings, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan appealed to the umpire Marais Erasmus , indicating that Mathews had arrived late to the crease since the fall of the last wicket of previous batter Sadeera Samarawickrama . Erasmus twice asked Shakib if he wished to proceed with the appeal, which Shakib confirmed, and Erasmus duly dismissed Mathews timed out. The appeal caused confusion in
2610-716: The Eastern Prakrits prior to this change. He cites the edicts of Ashoka , no copy of which shows this sound change. An example of an Eastern feature is the ending -e for masculine nominative singular (instead of Western -o ) in Sinhalese Prakrit. There are several cases of vocabulary doublets , one example being the words mæssā ("fly") and mækkā ("flea"), which both correspond to Sanskrit makṣikā but stem from two regionally different Prakrit words macchiā (Western Prakrits) and makkhikā (as in Eastern Prakrits like Pali ). In 1815,
2697-620: The ICC's ODI rankings. He finished the year by taking nine wickets over two Tests in Pakistan's tour of Bangladesh . Pakistan started 2012 with a three Test series against England in the United Arab Emirates . Ajmal was named the man of the match for the first Test in Dubai , with match figures of 10 wickets for 97 runs and a career best 7/55 in England's first innings. In the second fixture he dismissed Matt Prior to become
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2784-415: The ODI series 3 – 2. The England tour was followed by a 2 – 0 win over Pakistan at home, where Mathews and his team ensured a winning send-off for Mahela Jayawardene from Tests. On 16 November 2014, Mathews scored his first ODI century against India at Ranchi . He hit four boundaries and ten huge sixes but finally ended up on the losing side with a century made by Indian skipper Virat Kohli . Under
2871-516: The T20I captain. This Bangladesh tour was the third-consecutive overseas tour Mathews withdrew from with a hamstring injury, having also done so in 2017 in South Africa and India. In 2016, he had missed a full tour of Zimbabwe with "multiple leg injuries" as well. In May 2018, he was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018–19 season. Mathews
2958-546: The T20I side. Later that month, Mathews was appointed as the T20I captain with Lasith Malinga as his deputy. In February 2013 Mathews was eventually named as ODI and Test captain succeeding Jayawardene. Mathews became an important member of the Sri Lanka One Day team during the Sri Lanka tour of Australia in 2010/11. At the first match, on 3 November 2010, Mathews scored a magnificent match-winning 77* runs with
3045-551: The UAE in five ODIs . Playing in all five matches Ajmal took four wickets at an average of 39.50. He was then picked for the Sri Lankan series in Sri Lanka where he had made solid performances in the Test matches , being picked ahead of Danish Kaneria in two of the matches. In April 2009, Ajmal was reported by umpires for having a suspect bowling action. An independent test the following month demonstrated that Ajmal's arm flexed within
3132-448: The captaincy of Mathews was criticized for many reasons for their losses. Though he was injured several times in his captaincy career and replaced by Upul Tharanga in many winning notes, reporters suggested that Mathews would not captain until 2019 Cricket World Cup . Mathews was highly criticized for his running between the wickets. Sri Lanka coach Chandika Hathurusinghe stated that Mathews has been involved in more than 64 run-outs in
3219-443: The captaincy of Mathews, however, lost all the matches in the 5 ODI series against India in 2014. This is the largest loss by Sri Lanka in a bilateral series. The year 2014 was the limelight of Mathew's captaincy, where Sri Lanka won many bilateral ODI series and also the 2014 Asia Cup . That year, he became the most successful ODI captain with 20 wins out of 32 matches and 62.50% of winning percentage. For his performances in 2014, he
3306-401: The chin strap to break. He had then sought a replacement helmet, causing him to not be ready to face the first ball within the time limit. Shakib refused to withdraw the appeal and Mathews showed his dissent towards the decision of the on-field umpires Richard Illingworth and Marais Erasmus . Shakib complained that Mathews was not ready to face his first delivery within the two minutes as per
3393-681: The chronicle Mahāvaṃsa , written in Pali, Prince Vijaya of the Vanga Kingdom and his entourage merged in Sri Lanka with later settlers from the Pandya kingdom . In the following centuries, there was substantial immigration from Eastern India, including additional migration from the Vanga Kingdom (Bengal), as well as Kalinga and Magadha . This influx led to an admixture of features of Eastern Prakrits. The development of Sinhala
3480-406: The competition rules. It was later reported that the two-minute time limit had already elapsed before the helmet strap was broken. This was in violation of Law 40.1.1, stating that "after the fall of a wicket or the retirement of a batter, the incoming batter must, unless time has been called, be ready to receive the ball, or for the other batter to be ready to receive the next ball within 3 minutes of
3567-521: The competition's final. In November that year Pakistan travelled to the United Arab Emirates to face the West Indies in a three-match ODI series . Ajmal and Afridi were the team's only spin options; the former took a single wicket while conceding 73 runs and Pakistan won all three matches. Ajmal's next match the third ODI against Sri Lanka in January 2009. Pakistan faced Australia in
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3654-530: The controversy and upheaval of 2010, 2011 saw Pakistan become a more consistent team. The year began with the World Cup held between February and April. Pakistan progressed to the semi-final, where they were defeated by India; playing in three of the team's matches, Ajmal took five wickets at an average of 18.60. After the World Cup, Pakistan played ten Tests, winning six and losing a single match; this saw
3741-671: The debuts of Abdur Rauf , Mohammad Amir and Saeed Ajmal . He scored his maiden half-century in the third Test of the series, played at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo. His maiden ton came against Australia in September 2011 in the same venue. Mathews has an average record in Tests in countries such as Australia , South Africa and India , but up to now he has had limited opportunities to improve on it. His brilliant records at home and in countries like England and UAE make up for that. Two of his four centuries came in England – against
3828-412: The dismissal or retirement", although the ICC's playing conditions for the World Cup supersede this by stating the batter must be ready in two minutes rather than three. Mathews became the first player in an international cricket match of any format to be dismissed timed out. The dismissal was heavily criticized by many, including Bangladesh fast bowling coach Allan Donald . On 27 February 2021, Mathews
3915-411: The fastest Pakistani bowler to reach 100 wickets in Tests, taking 19 matches to accomplish the feat. The series concluded with Pakistan completing a 3–0 whitewash over England, and Ajmal was named man of the series after claiming 24 wickets at an average of 14.70. In the immediate aftermath of the Test series, following confusion over comments from Ajmal about his bowling action in an interview to
4002-524: The features that may be traced to Dravidian influence are: ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නවා dannavā know ඒක අලුත් කියලා මම දන්නවා ēka aḷut kiyalā mama dannavā it new having-said I know "I know that it is new." ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new ද da Q කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නේ Saeed Ajmal Saeed Ajmal SI ( Punjabi , Urdu : سعید اجمل ; born 14 October 1977)
4089-401: The field for some time with Mathews and Shakib caught in heated exchange over the decision. Mathews tried to convince both Shakib Al Hasan and the on-field umpires that he had arrived to the crease within the time limit but wasn't ready to face the bowler because of the breaking of his helmet strap, in what he described as an "equipment malfunction." Mathews had tightened his helmet which caused
4176-651: The first ODI in the series, he left the tour of West Indies immediately for personal reasons citing his daughter's critical health condition. On 15 May 2022, during the first test match against Bangladesh , Mathews scored his 12th test century. He dismissed for 199 runs while reaching his double century. Due to his innings match ended in a draw and Mathews later won the Player of the Match award for his performance. He continued his good form into next match by scoring his 13th test century. He put 199 run partnership with Dinesh Chandimal and his unbeaten 145* helped put Sri Lanka into
4263-485: The first match for Zimbabwe in the Bangladesh tri-series . During the match, he suffered a knee injury and was ruled out from the rest of the ODI series. Dinesh Chandimal captained the side and won the series as well. Initial news revealed that Mathews would recover for the Test series against Bangladesh, but he did not recover and hence dropped from the Test squad. He also missed T20I series, where Chandimal appointed as
4350-481: The first match vs Zimbabwe 2020. After Kumar Sangakkara stepped down as ODI captain following the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 , Mathews was widely tipped to be Sri Lanka's next limited-overs captain. However, short tenures of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Mahela Jayawardene followed. After Sri Lanka's loss in the final of the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 , the skipper Jayawardene stepped down as captain of
4437-482: The first test against Zimbabwe , Mathews scored his maiden double hundred. He scored unbeaten 200 runs in 465 balls within 600 minutes in the middle. His double hundred is recorded as the first double hundred scored by a Sri Lanka in five years after Sangakkara's double in 2015. Finally Sri Lanka won the match by 10 wickets and Mathews won the man of the match award. Sri Lanka was able to draw the second Test due to second innings unbeaten century by Kusal Mendis and sealed
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#17327971453594524-405: The fourth day, which was the fifth time that the Sri Lankan pair had done that in Test history. On the fifth day, they put on an unbeaten double-century partnership which overall lasted for 115 wicketless overs for New Zealanders. With rain-interrupted, the match was ended in a draw. The partnership of 246, was also Sri Lanka's highest for any wicket against New Zealand and also Sri Lanka's highest in
4611-607: The island of Ceylon came under British rule . During the career of Christopher Reynolds as a Sinhalese lecturer at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London , he extensively researched the Sinhalese language and its pre-1815 literature. The Sri Lankan government awarded him the Sri Lanka Ranjana medal for his work. He wrote the 377-page An anthology of Sinhalese literature up to 1815 , selected by
4698-467: The match against West Indies on 1 July 2019, Mathews surprisingly requested to bowl the 48th over. He picked up the wicket of Nicolas Pooran who was on 118 and was all set to take the West Indies to victory. Mathews had not bowled for 8 months, even in the nets. On 6 July 2019 against India, Mathews scored his third century, where all his three centuries now came against India. However, Sri Lanka lost
4785-528: The match and won the series. On 24th Oct 2023 In a significant development for Sri Lanka's World Cup campaign, Mathews was drafted into the squad for the injured Matheesha Pathirana . Sinhala language Sinhala ( / ˈ s ɪ n h ə l ə , ˈ s ɪ ŋ ə l ə / SIN -hə-lə, SING -ə-lə ; Sinhala: සිංහල , siṁhala , [ˈsiŋɦələ] ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( / ˌ s ɪ n ( h ) ə ˈ l iː z , ˌ s ɪ ŋ ( ɡ ) ə ˈ l iː z / SIN -(h)ə- LEEZ , SING -(g)ə- LEEZ ),
4872-507: The match by 141 runs. During the second T20I against India, Mathews pulled up a hamstring strain as he ran in to deliver the third ball of his third over. He left the field and did not come to bat as well. With medical treatments and news arrived, he will be out of cricket for at least two weeks. On 9 January 2018, Mathews was reappointed as the captain for Sri Lanka in One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals for
4959-536: The match by 6 wickets and also won the series. With three legends (Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Dilshan) retiring from international cricket, the team had a rough time in many bilateral series in all formats. They also lost the Asia Cup, World T20 and Champions Trophy very cheaply and moved down to 8 and 7 places in the rankings as well. With all these, Bangladesh toured Sri Lanka and drew all formats, whereas Zimbabwe also recorded their first series win against Sri Lanka and
5046-427: The match by 7 wickets. Mathews was included in the T20I series against India in January 2020. It was his first T20I appearance after 16 months. He played in the third T20I on 10 January 2020 and started to ball as well. However, he finished with expensive figures of 38 runs in three overs without a wicket. With the bat, he scored 31 runs and Sri Lanka eventually lost the match and the series. On 22 January 2020, during
5133-420: The most thrilling Twenty20 match of all time as Australia were in trouble and Ajmal was the unfortunate bowler who bowled that final over. Shortly after this the Pakistan team began a tour of England where they would face Australia in two Tests in July, and subsequently play England in four Tests and five ODIs. Danish Kaneria was preferred to Ajmal in the first match against Australia, but after Pakistan lost
5220-404: The past two years, more than the second worst. Out of those 64, about 45 times, the batter at the other end got out, where Hathurusinghe suggested that it is a world record. Hathurusingha and the selectors contended that Mathews lacked the "cricket fitness" to field for 50 overs, then run between the wickets effectively. Under Mathews's captaincy, Sri Lanka exited early from 2018 Asia Cup , where he
5307-468: The penultimate over to win the match for Sri Lanka by 6 runs. He won the Man of the Match award for a match-winning bowling performance. First test match of England tour of Sri Lanka 2021 , Mathews scored his 6000 test runs. In the second innings, he scored his 36th test half-century. He scored 71 runs facing 219 balls and 344 minutes on the crease just hitting four boundaries. His patient innings helped to take
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#17327971453595394-534: The player has been suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect. The analysis revealed that all his deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the regulations." Ajmal became the first bowler as well as first overseas player to pick up a fifer in Hong Kong T20 Blitz . He launched his own fashion brand, Saeed Ajmal Stores , offering ethnic clothing to all age and gender groups, with branches all over
5481-498: The record for the highest ninth wicket partnership in ODI cricket . In July 2022, Mathews played in his 100th Test match for Sri Lanka. As captain, Mathews led his national team to be the winners of the 2014 Asia Cup . On 7 November 2023, Mathews became the first player in the history of international cricket to be declared timed out without facing a delivery, as it happened during a group stage match between Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh at
5568-464: The second innings of a Test. It was the first time a Sri Lankan pair had added 200-plus runs in the second innings of a Test outside Asia. In the second Test, Mathews was injured with a hamstring trouble while he was batting with Chandimal. He was immediately sent for the medical scans and did not come to bat after tea. Sri Lanka finally lost the match and series 1–0. He was ruled out of the ODI tour and upcoming Australian tour as well. In April 2019, he
5655-577: The second match against Pakistan , Matthews played in his 100th Test . In March 2023, in the first match against New Zealand , he became the third Sri Lankan cricketer to complete 7000 test runs. And this match he completed 14000 international runs across all formats. In second innings Mathews scored his 14th Test Century against New Zealand at Hagley Oval . On the 27th of May, the second test match against Ireland , Mathews scored his 15th test century. He scored unbeaten 100 runs from 114 balls hitting six boundaries and four sixes. Finally, Sri Lanka won
5742-484: The second time less than six months after he resigned from the position. He stepped down from captaincy at the end of the Zimbabwe tour of Sri Lanka in 2017 after the ODI loss. However, with many defeats in all formats in 2017, a new coach Chandika Hathurusinghe and a new selection committee handed over the limited-overs captaincy to Mathews for the second time. Things were not good for his captaincy, and Sri Lanka lost
5829-470: The selectors considered dropping the leg-spinner and choosing Ajmal. In the event, Ajmal was not selected until the second Test against England, when Kaneria was dropped because he had been ineffective. Though Pakistan lost the match by nine wickets, Ajmal took his first five-wicket haul in Tests. In Pakistan's second innings, with his team looking to set a target for England to chase, Ajmal scored 50 from 79 balls, his first half-century in Tests, before he
5916-613: The semi-finals of the 2017–18 National T20 Cup . Currently, Ajmal is an assistant coach of PSL team Islamabad United . Saeed Ajmal has played for Faisalabad since his debut in 1995 at the age of 18. Ajmal represented the Faisalabad Wolves in the 2005 ABN-AMRO Twenty-20 Cup , his team won the final in which he was man of the match. When Faisalabad won the final of the ABN-AMRO Patron's Cup in March 2006, Ajmal
6003-427: The series 1–0. Mathews won the player of the series award becoming highest run-scorer in the series. Mathews scored 277 runs with a double hundred and one fifty at an average 138.50. During the third ODI against West Indies , Mathews delivered a match-winning bowling spell. He bowled all 10 overs in the match since way back in July 2015 due to the injury of premier pacer Nuwan Pradeep . He took 4 for 59 where he bowled
6090-470: The team win series against Bangladesh, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe and draw with the West Indies. Ajmal finished the year with 50 wickets from 8 Tests, more than any other bowler (second on the list was India's Ishant Sharma with 43). Pakistan were also largely successful in ODIs, winning 24 out of 32. After Pakistan beat Sri Lanka 4–1 in November 2011, Ajmal climbed to the number one spot in
6177-472: The tournament, Ajmal partnered Afridi. Pakistan won the tournament, and Ajmal was the tournament's joint second highest wicket-taker with twelve dismissals from seven games (only Pakistan's Umar Gul took more wickets, with thirteen dismissals). Ajmal's good form continued in the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 as he was Pakistan's leading wicket taker. However despite his good form he was known for conceding three sixes to Michael Hussey in what has been hailed as
6264-530: The unethical treatment by the management regarding the senior players in the team. His decision is mainly due to the pay dispute with the Sri Lanka Cricket Board and also due to the intentions of SLC to axe several senior players from the national team in the limited overs matches to nurture and give opportunities to the youngsters with the 2023 World Cup on focus. On 6 November 2023, during Sri Lanka's World Cup match against Bangladesh, during
6351-607: Was able to bring the team to the quarter-finals of the World Cup 2015 under his captaincy, where they lost the quarter-final against South Africa on 18 March 2015. This defeat was Sri Lanka's first loss in World Cups after 2003, without reaching for the semi-finals. Mathews became the fourth Sri Lankan all-rounder to take 100 ODI wickets with more than 3000 ODI runs after Sanath Jayasuriya , Aravinda de Silva , and Tillakaratne Dilshan . He took his 100th ODI wicket by lbw of Mohammad Hafeez on 26 July 2015. On 8 March 2016, Mathews
6438-401: Was able to drawn the match. Mathews scored his second ODI hundred on 12 December 2017 at Mohali during the second ODI against India . However, his century was in vain due to the third double hundred of Rohit Sharma in the earlier innings and Sri Lanka was on a chase of a mammoth total of 392. With Mathews's unbeaten century, however, Sri Lanka crossed 250 after 10 ODI matches and finally lost
6525-523: Was appointed as Sri Lanka's stand-in captain for the T20I series in the West Indies as the appointed captain Dasun Shanaka , delay in obtaining a US transit visa and travel with the team at the time. Under Mathews captaincy, Sri Lanka managed to win only the second T20I, where West Indies won the series 2–1. In batting, he had a poor outing, where he scored 5, 13 and 11 in three matches. Meanwhile, after
6612-566: Was appointed as the T20I captain as well, due to continuous injuries of Lasith Malinga . On 17 August 2016, under Mathews' captaincy, Sri Lanka whitewashed Australia, which was at the Number 1 in Test rankings. This was the second time that Sri Lanka managed to Whitewash a major Test side in their history. Before that, West Indies who were led by Brian Lara were whitewashed in a three-test series in 2001, and apart from that only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have been whitewashed. In July 2017, Sri Lanka lost
6699-406: Was dismissed by fellow off spinner Graeme Swann . During the series against England, Pakistan became engulfed in a spot fixing scandal after the fourth test. In a later secret interview it was unveiled by alleged fixer Mazhar Majeed that Ajmal, Abdul Razzaq , Younis Khan and Shahid Afridi were too difficult to bribe. He stated that Ajmal was too religious to get involved into fixing. After
6786-404: Was included in the 15-man squad and was expected to act as a foil to Shahid Afridi 's leg spin. He made his debut against India on 2 July 2008. Ajmal took a single wicket, that of Yusuf Pathan , from his ten overs while conceding 47 runs (1/47) as Pakistan won by eight wickets, before taking (2/19) in a ten-wicket victory over Bangladesh , although the team had no chance of progressing to
6873-437: Was involved in three more runouts in the same fashion. Therefore, immediately after the series, he was removed from the limited over captaincy and also from the limited over squad for England home series. On 7 July 2021, Mathews announced that he is considering to retire from across all formats of international cricket as he had not signed the tour contract with SLC for the limited overs series against India and he complained of
6960-563: Was named as captain of the World Test XI by ICC. He was also named in the Cricbuzz XI of the year. On 11 March 2015, during the last pool A match in 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup , against Scotland , Mathews scored the fastest fifty by a Sri Lankan in World Cups, and third fastest ODI fifty by a Sri Lankan after Sanath Jayasuriya and Kusal Perera . His fifty came from just 20 balls, which includes five sixes and one four. Mathews
7047-420: Was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the 2019 Cricket World Cup . After consecutive failures of 0,0, 9 with the bat in World Cup, Mathews regained his form during the pool match against England. He scored an unbeaten 85 runs to post a total of 232. With the bowling performance by veteran Malinga, Sri Lanka won the match by 20 runs. During the match, Mathews scored his 12,000th international run for Sri Lanka. During
7134-461: Was named the tournament's best bowler and was given a Rs 25,000 prize. He has also represented Khan Research Laboratories, who were runners-up in the final of the 2008/09 Quaid-i-Azam Trophy ; though his side lost the final, Ajmal took 5/105 and 2/55 and in the process passed 250 first-class wickets. Ajmal has also played for Islamabad. Pakistan hosted the Asia Cup in June 2008; Ajmal
7221-557: Was reported for having a suspect bowling action, but after being cleared he helped Pakistan win the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 . Ajmal played for Worcestershire as an overseas player in English domestic cricket in 2011. From November 2011 to December 2014, Ajmal was ranked by the International Cricket Council as the number one bowler in ODIs. He reached the same ranking in T20Is between October and December 2012, while his highest Test ranking
7308-627: Was sacked as the captain of the Sri Lankan ODI and T20 team in September 2018 after a disastrous 2018 Asia Cup campaign where Sri Lanka crashed out of the tournament after losing both their group matches against Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Test captain Dinesh Chandimal was named as the replacement for Mathews to captain the limited-overs teams. During the first Test against New Zealand in late 2018, Mathews scored his ninth Test century. Mathews along with Kusal Mendis batted all over
7395-542: Was second between January and July of the same year. He is one of four Test bowlers who made their debut after the age of thirty to take more than 100 test wickets, along with Clarrie Grimmett , Dilip Doshi and Ryan Harris . On 28 January 2012, in his 20th Test, Ajmal became the quickest Pakistani to take 100 Test wickets. He held the record of leading wicket taker (85) in Twenty20 International cricket before Shahid Afridi broke this record (101). He
7482-773: Was signed by Adelaide Strikers for the 2012 Big Bash League in Australia. In 2014, he was banned by the ICC because of an illegal bowling action. Saqlain Mushtaq worked with Ajmal to correct his bowling action. On 27 December 2014, Saeed Ajmal withdrew his name from the Pakistani World Cup squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 after he was unable to rectify his bowling action. On 13 November 2017, Ajmal announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. On 29 November 2017, he played his final match, playing for Faisalabad against Lahore Whites , in
7569-468: Was signed by Worcestershire in 2011 as their overseas player. He was signed by them as their overseas player again in 2014 and 2015. He was their highest wicket-taker in County Cricket in 2014 with 56 wickets. With HawkEye coming in, left-arm spinners slide the ball on for lbws. Offspinners get a lot of lbws from round the wicket, so you [batsman] have to work really hard, and a bloke who's got
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