Lasith Malinga’s presence will bolster Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign: Kumara Sangakkara

Sri Lankan skipper Kumara Sangakkara has said that his strike bowler Lasith Malinga’s presence in their World Cup match against Pakistan could have tipped the match in their favour.

Sri Lanka had lost the match by a fairly narrow margin of 11 runs.

“We can say that we missed Lasith a bit. He is going to be back with us very shortly,” the News quoted Sangakkara, as saying.

The 33-year-old further wants his team to learn from their mistakes for the rest of their campaign in the six-week tournament.

“A few things we can learn, maybe bowling a better line and length is important all the time. On a pitch like this, had we played better cricket and done basics especially in batting, we could have changed the result,” Sangakkara said.

“If we had kept building partnerships, when we had that great start, I think it would have been a different story,” he added.

Sri Lanka will now face Australia in Colombo on March 4.