Mahela, Sangakkara bid adieu to ODI cricket

Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara might not have got a fairytale ending to their final ODI match of their glorious careers but the veterans smiled through the disappointment as they fondly recounted their respective journeys.
The duo had already called time on their respective ODI careers before the 50-over showpiece event and it all ended on a bitterly disappointing note as Sri Lanka bowed out with a nine-wicket loss to South Africa in the quarterfinal here today.
Sangakkara, who came into this game with record four consecutive ODI hundreds, scored a valiant 45 but saw an abject surrender from all the other Lankan batsmen as the innings folded for 133 in 37.2 overs.

The stylish left-hander stitched a 65-run third wicket stand with Lahiru Thirimanne to pose a fightback after the openers departed but South African spinners Imran Tahir and Jean-Paul Duminy were too hot to handle after sharing seven wickets between them.
The 37-year-old Sangakkara, who has scored 14,234 runs in 404 ODIs, was the ninth wicket to fall in the Sri Lankan innings after the batsman stood witness to no-show by the the formidable Lankan batting order.
Sangakkara though ended on a high after scoring 541 runs in 7 matches of this edition and is still the highest run-scorer of the tournament so far.

He became the sixth player to score 500 runs in the World Cup. The loss notwithstanding, he remembered better things about him and partner Jayawardene.
"He (Mahela) would be terribly disappointed but that's part and parcel of the game, there are no fairytale endings. How much you want to win a World Cup, end on a high but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen, it doesn't mean you walk away disappointed," said a smiling Sangakkara in a post-match chat.