Kumar Sangakkara missed a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to become a hero after great Arjuna Ranatunga, but the Sri Lanka skipper showered praise on his opponents by saying that India deserved the trophy after the way they had played throughout the showcase event.
"India deserved the Cup after the way they played throughout the tournament," said Sangakkara after his side's six-wicket defeat to favourites India in the exciting final of the ICC Cricket World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.
Sangakkara also highly praised his counterpart's leadership quality. Mahendra Singh Dhoni has his own way of thinking and he never compromised with that. Dhoni's calm and smart leadership under pressure has come in for praise in this mega event and the Lankan skipper joined in by saying that: "Dhoni has been the epitome of captain cool. He's intelligent, very smart in the way he does things."
Sangakkara said that it was an added advantage for the Indian team to play the final at home and in front of a partisan crowd.
"It's a combination of various factors that has helped them win in different conditions. We also have played very well against them, but playing at home they took that inspiration that one step further," observed the Lankan skipper.
After Mahela Jayawardene's classy hundred, pacer Lasith Malinga struck early to remove openers Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar to give Sri Lanka an upper hand to spoil the Indian party, but Indian vaunted batting line-up proved their point to take away the early Sri Lankan initiatives and Sangakkara believed that the runs they put on the scoreboard was not enough for them to defend against such a strong batting line-up.
"Batting first and putting those runs up on the board was never enough the way the Indians batted. Their batting is unbelievable. They probably have the best top seven in ODI cricket."
It was left-handed batsman Gautam Gambhir who along with his skipper took the charge to take away the Lankan initiatives but Sangakkara pointed out that his bowlers failed to apply enough pressure.
"After we got the first two wickets, we weren't really tight enough with our bowling. We bowled quite a few loose balls and Gambhir and [Virat) Kohli made us pay for that. MS really stuck it out there and saw through the tough periods. Once they matched, they then went past the asking-rate, it was very difficult to come back to the match.
"It was a great pitch, it lasted throughout. It turned a little in the middle part of the innings but the Indians are great players of spin. We didn't bother them too much today apart from Malinga1 s two wickets at the start," he continued.
Sangakkara lauded Jayawardene for his great knock which helped them to overcome a sluggish start to set a challenging target.
"It was an exceptional innings. He made this wonderful stage his own. He really showed us what he is capable of and what a classy player he is. He got us to where we reached, otherwise we were looking at a total of 240-250," said Sangakkara.
"It doesn't matter how often you play each other. It is the World Cup final. You need to do something special. We had that in Jayawardene and they had that in Gambhir and Dhoni. They were one step ahead of us," he added.
Sangakkara was happy with the way his side performed in the tournament but branded the defeat to India in Mumbai as "hugely disappointing" as it was Sri Lanka's third defeat starting with the 2007 World Cup in West Indies which was followed by the World 1Wenty20 in England.
"It is hugely disappointing but satisfying as well in a strange sense because we understand the magnitude of what we've done to get here. We can be proud of the way we played our cricket. We tried exceptionally hard to win games, but today unfortunately we couldn't convert."
Definitely Sri Lanka deserved some praise because it was their effort which made the final of the game's biggest event worthy after some dull and drab affairs in the finals since 1999.