A prolific, elegant and utterly classy batsman with a huge appetite for runs, and a calm yet authoritative captain - those are the qualities that best describe Mahela Jayawardene. 

During his 18-year-old cricket career, the right-hander was a vital cog in Sri Lanka's batting line-up, scoring 11814 runs in Tests, 12650 runs in ODIs and another 1493 runs in T20Is.

But, despite his batting masterclass winning plaudits across the globe, Jayawardene has been a mere witness to a sick old joke. Social media has been flooded with posts poking fun at the Lankan legend for his first name which rhymes with Mahila (a woman) in Hindi.

While Jayawardene has always ignored such stupid posts, a cricket fan tried to pull off a similar stunt on International Women's Day.

Looking to embarrass the former cricketer, a Twitter user tweeted "Happy women's day to the best srilankan cricketer" using a picture of Jayawardene.

Happy women's day to the best srilankan cricketer ?  #womensday pic.twitter.com/6Hli6YdFte

— Manish Bindroo (@ManishUnknown) March 8, 2017

Spending a fair amount of time on Twitter since his retirement, Jayawardene didn't just notice the tweet but also gave a befitting reply.

You should know the difference of Mahela and Mahila? ? https://t.co/bw6SFCK3ih

— Mahela Jayawardena (@MahelaJay) March 8, 2017

Ever since his reply, the tweet has garnered a lot retweets and likes on the micro-blogging website with other users praising the Lankan batting legend.

@MahelaJay Classy as always ?

— Knightwriter. (@SRKsTrooper) March 8, 2017

@MahelaJay manish bindro... You're trolling one of the most liked cricketer ??

— लियोनल आशिष #FCB (@A__Ashish) March 8, 2017

@MahelaJay @roflbaba Super Shot!!! One of the best you have played in your glorious career.

— Anand Varma (@Indianguts) March 8, 2017

@MahelaJay Clarification was long overdue Mahila...sorry, Mahela

— Balakrishna Shetty (@shettyb78) March 8, 2017

@MahelaJay Superb timing with classy wit

— LIJITH MOHAN (@lijithmohan) March 8, 2017

@MahelaJay ??? made my day! #MahilaJayawardena

— MOhammed MOin (@d_magnificent05) March 8, 2017