The 37-year-old, playing his 116th Test, reached the landmark in the course of his innings on the second evening against South Africa at Gqeberha. Sri Lanka are trailing one-nil in the series, hoping for a win to boost their World Test Championship final prospects. South Africa put up 358 thanks to centuries from Ryan Rickelton and Kyle Verreyne, before a strong Sri Lankan top order performance had the tourists’ noses in front by the close of day two.

Dimuth Karunaratne’s 20 was the lowest score among the top five, with Pathum Nissanka’s 89 leading the way. Dinesh Chandimal contributed 44 as well. At 199-3 South Africa might have spied half an opening, but Mathews and Kamindu Mendis carried the score to 244 by stumps.

Mathews’ 8,000th run came up in slightly streaky fashion, beaten in the flight by Keshav Maharaj but going through with his shot and clearing mid-off for four. He reached the mark in his 205th innings, the third slowest to the landmark, one knock ahead of Australia’s Mark Waugh. England’s Alec Stewart foots the list.

Mathews has little chance to overtake Jayawardene, ahead of him among Sri Lankans. He and his great mate Sangakarra finished just either side of 12,000 Test runs, meaning Mathews would need almost 50 per cent of his career tally again to be within reach. Among active players, he may yet be caught by Dimuth Karunaratne. The 36-year-old is less than 1,000 runs behind Mathews. Next is Dinesh Chandimal, who was dismissed 10 runs shy of the 6,000-run landmark.

Batters with 8,000 Test runs, full list

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