[2][3] The son of a porter at the Karachi Gymkhana Club,[4] Mathias was a stylish right-handed middle-order batsman.
In the Second Test against West Indies in Dacca in 1958-59, he top-scored in each innings with 64 and 45, as Pakistan won a low-scoring match by 41 runs.
[5] He was also a gifted slip fielder with exceptional reflexes, whose "great skill was to make hard chances look simple".
After he returned from the tour of England in 1962, in the next four years he made 1357 runs in 13 matches at an average of 113.08,[8] including his career-best score of 278 not out for Karachi Blues against Railways Greens in 1965-66.
[9] Four years later he joined the newly formed National Bank cricket team and became their first ever captain, playing for them until 1976-77 and later coaching the side.