‘Hope, it doesn’t turn out his last test,’ Jason Gillespie’s tweet on Angelo Mathews’ 200 leaves everyone in splits

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Angelo Mathews has roared back into form with a stupendous double hundred against Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club. Mathews scored 200 not out in the first innings of the first Test. His marathon knock in 468 balls propelled Sri Lanka to a 10-wicket win over Zimbabwe as he grabbed the man of the match award. The former skipper surpassed his previous Test best of 160 as Sri Lanka declared their first innings on 515 for nine.

Mathews’ innings against Zimbabwe got a lot of plaudits from the cricketing community. However, there was one comment by a former Australian fast bowler that caught the eye of the fans. Jason Gillespie congratulated Mathews on Twitter with a simple message,’ Welcome Angelo….#TestDoubleClub.’ His comment started a series of tweets by several cricket fans. Here is Gillespie’s tweet:-

Jason Gillespie was a premier fast bowler for Australia during his playing days. He was lethal with the ball in hand as he picked up 401 wickets in 71 Tests and 97 ODIs for the Australia cricket team. Gillespie retired from first-class cricket in 2008 and turned his eyes towards coaching.

Gillespie is the only night watchman in world cricket to score a double century in an innings of a Test. In his last match in international cricket, Gillespie smashed 201* against Bangladesh in 2006 to set a world record for the highest individual score by a night watchman in cricket.

Suranga Lakmal took four for 27 to set up Sri Lanka for a 10-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the first Test in Harare on Thursday.

Resuming on 30 without loss and needing 157 to make Sri Lanka bat again, Zimbabwe recovered from the loss of three early wickets to Lakmal to reach lunch at 120 for three.

The tall pace bowler struck again immediately after, removing Brendan Taylor for 38, and Zimbabwe slumped to 170 all out, losing their last seven wickets for 50.

Sri Lanka needed just 14 to win and the openers Oshada Fernando and Dimuth Karunaratne knocked off the runs in three overs.