Players themselves to be blamed for semi-final loss: Sangakkara

Gros Islet, May 14 (ANI): Dejected after the seven wicket loss to England in the semi-final of the ICC World T20 Championship here, Sri Lanka cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara has said no one else but the players themselves are to be blamed for their shoddy performance in the all important match of the tournament.

Last year’s finalist, Sri Lanka could manage to put only 128 on the score board after Sangakkara won the toss and elected to bat at the Beausejour Stadium here. For England, it was once again Kevin Pietersen who shone with the bat, showing no signs of fatigue after flying back from London following the birth of his first son. He remained unbeaten on 42.

Sangakkara, who himself made just 16, said losing wickets at regular intervals restricted the team from posting a fighting total.

“In the first six overs if we’d got 40 runs with wickets in hand we could have accelerated through the middle but we lost three wickets early. Angelo Mathews (58) played very well but we didn’t bat smartly today,” he said.

Commenting on the smart bowling tactics of England pacers, who used slow looping bouncers to good effect, Sangakkara said : ” Everyone has those sorts of deliveries these days but it’s how you use them that counts and I thought England did that very well.”

Veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya finished the tournament with just 15 runs from six innings, but the Sri Lankan skipper avoided comments on whether it was the 40-year old batsmen’s last international outing.

“Unfortunately he didn’t have a great run but to his credit he stuck with the team through a difficult period and the team stuck with him. He showed a lot of support and we made sure he felt wanted, unfortunately he didn’t deliver but we still had more than enough quality to do better than we did today,” he said during the post-match presentation. (ANI)