Sangakkara, for one last time in Tests

The time had come and Colombo knew how to make it special. Kumar Sangakkara strode out for the final time as a batsman in Test cricket through a guard of honour and a very noisy crowd. It was a chancy innings though. He was nearly run out off the seventh ball he faced. There were two crisp fours as well. But the innings would only last 18 balls.

Although the fairytale ending was foiled, Sangakkara's value and "what he was for SL cricket is something you can't take away," to quote his best friend Mahela Jayawardene. Here is what some of his other team-mates had to say

For those curious about the man himself, Sangakkara's wife Yehali talks of how she was wooed by five-page love letters, and of family cook-outs

That Sangakkara has toppled various records is common knowledge, but how does he rate among his peers? ESPNcricinfo compared his average as a Test cricketer with some of his peers as his career went on

That he had to go through his first Test series without aggregating 100 runs in two years was down to India offspinner R Ashwin, who took Sangakkara's wicket four out of four times