Sri Lankan star Mahela Jayawardene says his on-field stoush with fiery Australian wicketkeeper Matthew Wade was left on the field, but admits he was happy he got the last laugh in the ongoing verbal battle in Monday’s Champions Trophy match in London.
The former Sri Lankan captain and Wade were seen going at it on the field as man-of-the-match Jayawardene constructed his brilliant innings of 84no to help his side to a healthy 8-253-run total.
Australian captain George Bailey even had to intervene as the players walked off the field at the end of Sri Lanka’s innings.
Jayawardene said Wade was baiting him over tactics.
But Sri Lanka’s 20-run win which eliminated Australia from the tournament was enough to satisfy Jayawardene that the matter was over.
“It was nothing much. Just a bit of banter obviously. It’s all good, we shook hands after the game,” he said.
“Obviously he said something about the way I was batting the last few overs so I just told him don’t worry there’s obviously a plan. And you see once we finished the game I felt we had the last laugh.”
Bailey said there was nothing wrong with two passionate sportsmen showing some emotion, but said there came a time when he felt he needed to put a stop to it.
“Not sure how that started. At the end of the innings I just tried to calm it down,” Bailey said.
“They’re both passionate people. I think teammates on either side would say they love playing with that sort of passion so I’ve got no idea what it was about. But I thought once the innings was over it was probably time to put it to bed.”