Sri Lanka exorcise English demons with second win

Sri Lanka's resurgence after a disastrous tour of England gathered pace on Saturday as they defeated Pakistan by 39 runs at Tangiers on Saturday.

The victory virtually guarantees them their place in Wednesday's final because of the advantage gained from a bonus point obtained against South Africa and by having far the best net run-rate.

"England is history now," said Jayasuriya. "We have done a lot of hard work on our game with Dav (Whatmore) and Duleep (Mendis) and that is now starting to pay dividends."

"The boys did really well today, it was a great all-round performance," he added.

He was delighted with his fielders: "After a long time we produced a really good fielding display with Mahela (Jayawardene) and Upul (Chandana) making a big difference with their three catches."

"It was not easy for them chasing as the bowlers did really well, especially Pulasthi (Gunaratne) bowled with a lot of variation and changed the match early on in the Pakistan innings," the Sri Lankan captain observed.

Sri Lanka eventually posted a competitive first innings score of 242, but at one stage they were precariously placed on 53 for three having lost three wickets for 11 runs.

But Jayasuriya, the Man of the Match for his 97 from 94 balls, then added 111 runs for the fourth wicket with Mahela Jayawardene (43).

"After Marvan (Atapattu) was run out I was very disappointed and then we quickly lost Kumar (Sangakkara) and Aravinda (de Silva) ­ I knew I had to stay there for a long time," he said.

Unlike their first victory, which was assisted by a crumbling pitch in the second innings, conditions remained fair throughout the duration of the match.

"The toss didn't make a big difference today as the ball came on to the bat in the Pakistan innings," said Jayasuriya.

Waqar Younis's side now have to win against South Africa on Sunday and hope that Sri Lanka then defeat Shaun Pollock's side on Monday.

"We now have to pull ourselves together for a big game tomorrow," said Waqar.

"We bowled them out well but we then needed the top order to get some runs, which they were unable to do," he added.

He praised the efforts of Yousuf Youhana and admitted that the management would have to reassess the best place for Shahid Afridi to bat, who went in at number nine today.

"He (Afridi) is the kind of batsmen that you can play at any number and he will change the game, we will have to have a look at what we do tomorrow," he said.