A dream day for Khettarama faithful

In characteristic Sri Lankan style, Colombo was a little late catching on to the bit of history about to transpire on Tuesday. Only after the hill country had welled up to farewell its cricketing king did the buzz come slowly alive in three-wheeler stands and bus halts on the coast.

"Machang, it's these buggers' last match, no? Do you think there will be tickets left?"

There were, of course, tickets left. Like political crossovers in election season, sold out matches materialise spontaneously in Sri Lanka. Leave applications were filed late on Monday evening. Tuition classes were bunked. Colombo geared up for a party, and must have had little trouble locating the flags, face-paint and dhol, so blessed have they been with the frequency of cricket celebrations this year.

The buggers, though, did not have their greatest outing with the bat. Mahela Jayawardene lit the fire beneath Sri Lanka's innings, making a shimmering 28, before being torched by his own blaze. The crowd, in characteristic Sri Lankan style, had not by that stage fully arrived. But it quickly overcame its stunned silence and rang out in chants of "Maiya, Maiya", before transitioning seamlessly to "Sanga, Sanga" as the next bugger arrived at the crease.

There was talk, on social media and in the stands, of dual hundreds for the pair, or at least a century-stand, like they had had in their last Test outing together. Instead each gave renditions of their most frustrating innings. Jayawardene had fallen attacking too lavishly after having looked like he would hit a million runs in the innings. Kumar Sangakkara revived a classic from a bygone era of his career. He began slowly on a good batting track, set himself to go big, then promptly got out to a mediocre delivery, finishing with a strike rate of 66.

Stage now ceded, Tillakaratne Dilshan took well to the limelight, as is his wont. The Khettarama hordes had come wanting runs from others, but they are not that choosy really, and no strangers to disappointment. The party sped over those speed bumps and rolled right on into the evening; the stands gyrating in Mexican waves amongst all the two-step dancing, trumpet playing and arm flailing.

Chris Jordan's routine threats to throw down the stumps brought repeated rounds of hooting, but he's among the luckier hootees in the stadium's recent history. When politicians from any party have shown up, the hooting can last for minutes. The president's last appearance at the ground, during the World T20 final, brought such a reaction, and he hasn't been seen since. Set deep inside one of Colombo's workingest-class neighbourhoods, in which Muslim calls to prayer and Buddhist bana sometimes drift in and interlock on Friday evenings, the ground at Khettarama is the people's domain. No bigwigs are tolerated. No cheap political points to be scored on this turf, only runs.

So on Dilshan went, signing up a rejuvenated Dinesh Chandimal for a sidekick, while the clouds glowed orange overhead and peels of thunder added bass to the music pouring out of the stands. It would only rain boundaries today. Dilshan cracked two consecutive fours off Harry Gurney to move in the eighties, before he reached triple figures soon after, and went on a long celebratory run, which featured two kisses blown in the direction of the dressing room. One each for Sanga and Mahela? "No, that was for my wife," Dilshan said afterwards. He knows the bromance doesn't need a third wheel.

There would be more from Dilshan, after Thisara Perera made brutal use of England's apparent yorker embargo in the death overs. He'd open the bowling and remove Moeen Ali for the fourth time in the series, then scalp Alex Hales and Eoin Morgan too. Jayawardene and Sangakkara did not seem to mind. Dilshan was crashing their party, but he'd also brought all the food and booze. A few fully-flung stops at backward point put the finishing touches on the Dilshan show.

"Always I try to keep things light and enjoy myself on the field," Dilshan later said. "I would like all 300 balls come to me. You can contribute a lot on the field. You can't be lazy and you have to look forward for each ball to come towards you. Then fielding becomes enjoyable."

He would earn the Man of the Match and Man of the Series awards for his fielding, the 12 wickets at 24.75, and 357 runs at 51, but the night would end on the best possible note for the Khettarama crowd. If Sangakkara and Jayawardene could not strike batting gold, they would at least leave the crowd with a jewel. Jayawardene took the ball in the 44th over, and the party rose quickly to its crescendo, then broke into an unreal dimension of noise and joy when he and Sangakkara combined for the first time in the field, to clinch the win.

A thrilling day, a handsome win, rarely perfect, but the cricket keeps drawing the people in - days like this is what Colombars and Sri Lankans dream about.