COLOMBO. Mar 2: There were scenes of Jubilation on the streets of Colombo and Sports Minister S B Dia-sanayake said Sri Lanka's World Cup hopes were strengthened with today's nailbiting victory over India, reports AFP.

The news of the thrilling victory was received with the setting off of fire crackers. Some were opening bottles of arrack, the main local liquor.

"We were confident of winning although the Indians did very well at jhe inlUal stages of the game." Dlssanayake told AFP. we are now on top/of the points table in Group A and I am sure we can win the World Cup."

He said Sri Lanka would have preferred to play against cup favourites Australia and the West indies who forfeited their games here after staying away, citing security concerns and gifting four points to Arjuna Ranatunga's team.

"Even if we played against Australia and the West Indies. 1 am sure we would have won those matches." he said. "We are facing this World Cup to win.”

He said President Chandrika Kumaratunga was sending a message of congratulations to the Sri Lanka team.