Denagamage Praboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene (Sinhalese: ???? ???????; born 27 May 1977), known as Mahela Jayawardene, is a former Sri Lankan cricketer. He is regarded as one of the modern greats of batsmanship, especially due to his mastery of playing spin bowling. Jayawardene's highest test score, 374 against South Africa is the highest test score by a right handed batsman in the history of test cricket.

Mahela Jayawardene
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Jayawardene playing for Sri Lanka in 2014
Personal information
Full name	Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene
Born	(1977-05-27) 27 May 1977 (age 41) Colombo, Sri Lanka
Nickname	Maiya
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm medium
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	Sri Lanka (1997–2015)
Test debut (cap 69)	2 August 1997 v India
Last Test	14 August 2014 v Pakistan
ODI debut (cap 92)	24 January 1998 v Zimbabwe
Last ODI	18 March 2015 v South Africa
ODI shirt no.	27 (previously 92)
T20I debut (cap 5)	15 June 2006 v England
Last T20I	6 April 2014 v India
T20I shirt no.	27
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1995–2015	Sinhalese Sports Club
2007–2012	Wayamba Elevens
2008–2010	Kings XI Punjab (squad no. 27)
2011	Kochi Tuskers Kerala (squad no. 27)
2012–2014	Delhi Daredevils (squad no. 27)
2012	Wayamba United
2014	Trinidad and Tobago Red Steels
2015	Sussex
2015	Jamaica Tallawahs
2015–2017	Central Stags
2015–2016	Adelaide Strikers
2015–2016	Dhaka Dynamites
2016	Somerset
2017	Karachi Kings
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 149 448 237 546 Runs scored 11,814 12,650 17,838 15,421 Batting average 49.84 33.37 49.68 33.67 100s/50s 34/50 19/77 51/80 21/95 Top score 374 144 374 163* Balls bowled 589 593 3,001 1,280 Wickets 6 8 52 24 Bowling average 51.66 70.37 31.32 47.75 5 wickets in innings 0 0 1 0 10 wickets in match 0 n/a 0 n/a Best bowling 2/32 2/56 5/72 3/25 Catches/stumpings 205/– 218/– 305/– 265/–
Source: CricketArchive, 17 August 2016

Jayawardene made his Test cricket debut in 1997 and his One Day International (ODI) debut the following season. In 2006 he made the highest ever score by a Sri Lankan in Test cricket, scoring 374 in the second Test of Sri Lanka's home series against South Africa. He has a test cricket average of just under 50 and a One Day average in the 30s. He is the first player in the history of Sri Lankan cricket to score over 10,000 Test runs. Despite his relatively low ODI average, Jayawardene is considered to be one of the best batsmen produced by Sri Lanka.

He is one of only four Sri Lankan legends—the others being Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan—to have the prestigious record of having scored more than 10,000 runs in ODIs. Along with teammate Sangakkara, he recorded for the most partnership runs for the 3rd wicket in Tests, scoring 5890 runs surpassing 5826 run stand of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar , during the first test match against Pakistan at Galle International Stadium, which was his last test at the venue. He scored 56 runs at that match, where his counterpart scored 221 runs.

Jayawardene was a key member of the team that won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 and was part of the team that made to the final of 2007 Cricket World Cup, 2011 Cricket World Cup, 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and 2012 ICC World Twenty20.

In 2006, Jayawardene was named by the International Cricket Council as the best international captain of the year and was nominated in 2007 as the best Test cricket player of the year. He is also known for his fielding skills in the inner ring, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had affected the most number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the fifth highest run-out/match ratio in ODI's. Statistics also reveal that c Jayawardene b Muralitharan is the most common bowler-fielder combination in the history of Test cricket.

Jayawardene also worked as an international TV commentator in the first test at Headingley on 19 May 2016 between England a