Sangakkara Reveals Soul-Searching

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Sangakkara - on form behind the stumps.

Sri Lanka heaped the pressure on faltering hosts the West Indies, with a 113-run victory - inspired by some soul-searching among Mahela Jayawardene's squad.

That was the view of Sri Lanka's wicketkeeper-batsman Kumar Sangakkara, who said that his side had looked long and hard at themselves following defeat to South Africa in their previous Super Eight fixture.

Sangakkara made just seven with the bat but made two stumpings and had a hand in the run out of Dwayne Smith.

He told Sky Sports 2: "From the game against South Africa, the guys have now realised that complacency and cruising is not the order of the day.

"It was a great show of character to come back from that loss and win.

"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.

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

Man-of-the-match Sanath Jayasuriya, who hit a typically destructive 115 and took three wickets, insisted he felt the need to lead from the front.

"I think today was a crucial day for us," said Jayasuriya, a veteran of the 1996 World Cup win.

"Somebody has to take the responsibility in the middle and after I batted for 10 overs I thought that I should take that responsibility.

"I wanted to bat for a long period and put my team in a good position.

"We played well and we'll have to do the same thing when we play England in Antigua."

Defeated captain Brian Lara admitted his under-pressure side were tired after a gruelling early schedule in the Super Eight stage.

After losses to New Zealand and Australia before this match, their participation in the competition looks to be coming to a close, but Lara refused to admit his side's hopes of a semi-final berth were over.

"It was a tough day," Lara told Sky Sports 2.

"We've played four games in 10 days now and you can feel the guys getting a little bit flat.

"Daren Powell, for one, seems to have dropped about 10 kilometres (in pace) in those days,.

"We'll have to fight now and you never know what can happen in a World Cup. We've just played four one-day internationals in 10 days and we'll take a few days off and assess the situation."

Jayawardene - Lara's opposite number - had a better day, claiming 82 runs in his side's 303 for five while the hosts' response of 190 all out saw Sri Lanka take the two points and go second in the table.

He claimed that despite Jayasuriya's pyrotechnics with the bat and another disciplined bowling display, it was the fielding that impressed him most.

"We put lots of emphasis on our fielding and we can improve every day and change matches.

"The whole World Cup we're improving.

"It was also good to get some runs and good partnerships. I spent some time in the middle after the last two games haven't been that fruitful."