We lost lifetime opportunity, Gilchrist took it away : Mahela

Bridgetown, Barbados, Apr 29 (UNI) Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene said his team's dream of winning the World Cup for the second time was shattered by Adam Gilchrist's blazing knock.

Gilchrist slammed a 104-ball 149, the fastest century and highest score in a World Cup final, paving the way for Australia's 53-run victory in the rain-hit final.

''Gilchrist played a terrific innings, unfortunately I was the opposition captain watching it,'' Jayawardene said.

''We thought we had a decent chance to reclaim the World Cup, but they proved us wrong. Gilchrist took the initiative away from us. Even mishits were going over the fence. In such situations, you try different things, be patient and wait,'' he added dejectedly.

''It was solid hitting ... you can't control the flow of runs when Gilchrist's in such form.'' he said.

Jayawardene admitted his team lost a golden opportunity to repeat the title triumph of 1996.

''I'm obviously disappointed to lose the final. This was a lifetime opportunity of winning the World Cup. But it was taken away by a great innings,'' the Lankan skipper said.

He lauded his opponents, saying ''They had an amazing tournament.

It is not easy to remain unbeaten for the past seven weeks and they did it in amazing style.'' However, Jayawardene said he was proud at the way Sri Lanka had played in this World Cup, to advance to the title round.

''I'm very proud of the guys and what we have achieved,'' he said, adding ''we put up a great World Cup performance, we played exceptionally well to make the final.

''Even today we had a decent chance when Jayasuriya and Sangakkara were batting, but it began raining,'' he said in his post-match press conference.

He further said that his team did not give up as they were chasing well and was on course as per the plan but the rain and Duckworth-Lewis method changed all that.

''We went for D/L and lost two important wickets in the process.

Had the score been around 240-250 it could have been chaseable but the 281 were more than we had expected and the difference was Gilchrist,'' he explained.

Praising the Australians, he said that in every big tournaments or matches, the ''Aussies were inventing something new which became impossible for the others to catch. They have been amazing. A great team,'' he remarked.

Regarding his own team, Murali, Vaas, Jayasuriya and Sangakkara came in for special mention from the skipper.

''The new guys like Malinga had also done exceptionally well,'' he added.

UNI