Vaas fades into Test sunset

Sri Lanka's most successful pacer Chaminda Vaas left the Sinhalese Sports Ground never to return to Test cricket again.

It was a befitting end to an illustrious career as Sri Lanka, back against the wall, batted out a draw against the exasperating Pakistanis to win the three-match Test series 2-0 on Friday.

Vaas did not have much success with the ball in his Test swansong, picking just the wicket of Khurram Manzoor in Pakistan's first innings and going wicketless in the second essay.

"It has been a long haul and I always had the backing of my friends and family," an emotional Vaas said after the match.

"It's an emotional moment for me," he added.

His kids, wife and parents were present as Vaas drew curtains on his Test career.

Since making his Test debut against Pakistan at Kandy in 1994, the Mattumagala-born pacer played 111 Tests, claiming 355 wickets at 29.58 with 12 five-wicket hauls in it.

He also scored 3089 Test runs, at 24.32, including a century against Bangladesh.

In the 322 ODIs he played, Vaas has taken 400 wickets at 27.53, besides scoring 2025 runs.

He also played six Twenty20 internationals.

Sri Lanka's most successful bowler after Muttiah Muralitharan, Vaas's natural ability to swing and seam the ball, and his grasp of reverse-swing, made him a lethal bowler.

He claimed the first ODI eight-for, against Zimbabwe, which included a hat-trick, and had another hat-trick in Sri Lanka's 2003 World Cup match against Bangladesh.

Earlier this month, chief selector Asantha de Mel revealed that Vaas had made up his mind to quit the longer version of the game.

Vaas, however, went on to deny it.

After being ignored for the first two Tests against Pakistan, the 35-year-old pacer was recalled to Sri Lanka's squad for the third and final match.

Incidentally, even though he announced that he would be available to ODIs and Twenty20s, the left-arm pacer was ignored as Sri Lanka named a a 15-member squad for the ODI series against Pakistan, starting in Dambulla on July 30.