Sri Lanka's magnificent victory over two of the best one-day sides in cricket, South Africa and Pakistan, was quite memorable. The fact that Sri Lanka, under the leadership of Sanath Jayasuriya went through the entire tournament with a 100 percent untarnished record speaks volumes for the team's commitment and desire to win.

The win provided a great morale booster to the side, after they had lost the 3-Test series that preceded the tournament 2-0 (1 drawn) to Pakistan.

The most pleasing aspects from Sri Lanka's viewpoint were the successes of opening bat Avishka Gunawardana and batsman/wicket keeper Kumar Sangakkara.

The manner in which they took on the best bowlers from Pakistan and South Africa was a revelation. It was a pity that neither was lucky enough to win the man of the series award, which the ICC match referee presented to South African all rounder Jacques Kallis.

Gunawardana scored 230 runs at an average of 46 and had the best strike rate in the competition, 95.43 runs per 100 balls, and the majority of Sangakkara's 198 runs (avg 66.00) were made in times of adversity when the team was in trouble or desperately in need of quick runs.

Kallis on the other hand, apart from back to back knocks of 83 against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, didn't contribute much. He totalled 211 runs (avg 52.75) and two, 5 wicket hauls at 34.20 runs a piece. South Africa's two victories were over Pakistan in the league phase.

Apart from the two youngsters, the other encouraging factor for Sri Lanka was that they did not have to rely on any batsman for runs. If the top order failed to deliver, the middle order supplemented it.

Despite their inability to play top class spin, South Africa performed very well to reach the final ahead of Pakistan, and also came within 30 runs of Sri Lanka's total of 294 in the final.

Muthiah Muralitharan and Upul Chandana took most of the wickets in the competition- 17 between them proved that spinners ruled the roost.

Pakistan at the tail end of a long tour just did not have enough energy to recharge their batteries for one last hurrah before returning home.

© BCCSL