Sangakkara relieved as Sri Lanka bounce back

Sri Lanka Cricket / Editor / 02 April 2007 / Leave a Comment

Sri Lanka wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara was delighted with the response of his team-mates as they cruised to a 113-run victory over the West Indies on Sunday.

The 1996 winners are many people's dark horses to go all the way in this year's World Cup and they cruised through their three group games, taking two points into the Super 8 phase of the tournament.

However they stumbled against South Africa in their opening Super 8 encounter and lost by one wicket, despite Lasith Malinga's last-gasp heroics with the ball, when he took four wickets in four balls.

Sanath Jayasuriya was the star of the show for the Asian outfit against the hosts at the weekend, hammering 115 from just 101 deliveries, and Sangakkara revealed that the Sri Lankan players decided to knuckle down and concentrate on fulfilling their potential after the heart-breaking Proteas defeat.

"From the game against South Africa, the guys have now realised that complacency and cruising is not the order of the day," he said. "It was a great show of character to come back from that loss and win."

And the controversial 'keeper was pleased to have put in a good performance behind the sticks after failing to contribute with the bat.

"I did not get many runs and I pride myself on that ability also so I was glad to have a good day behind the stumps," he added.

"I pulled up my socks and made a proper contribution - I haven't done that much in the last three games."

Mahela Jayawardene's men face England in their next match on Wednesday and are the 1.51 favourites to beat Michael Vaughan's men, who can be backed at 2.94.

They are trading at 1.18 to reach the semi-finals in the Caribbean and 6.2 to win the tournament outright, while England are on offer at 3.25 to reach the last four and 17.5 to win their first ever World Cup.