Mathews happy to break barriers

Sri Lanka have not won a major title for a long while and captain Angelo Mathews said that his side were happy to have broken the "barrier of finals" by defeating Pakistan in the summit clash to lift the Asia Cup.

Sri Lanka were runners-up in the 2007 and 2011 World Cups as well as in the World Twenty20 championships in 2009 and 2012. They were also the runners-up in the 2010 edition of the Asia Cup.

"We wanted to break the barrier between us and the finals. This is a big victory not only for me, but for the whole team. We haven't won a major tournament for a while," Mathews said after Sri Lanka regained the Asia Cup title which they had last won in 2008.

"Credit goes to the whole team. I thought the toss wasn't crucial and Lasith (Malinga) set us up wonderfully. It was a very good run-chase," he added.

Asked about leaving out spinner Ajantha Mendis, who had a fine tournament, picking nine wickets from three matches, for the final, Mathews said, "It was a very tough call to leave Mendis out because he performs well whenever we ask him to.

"But we wanted an extra death bowling option and Lakmal was brilliant," he said.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq attributed the loss to his side's inability to execute their plans.

"It was not the pressure of the final. We just didn't execute our plans. We wanted not to give Lasith any wickets and in the end he took all our wickets," he said.

"I think, after losing the first three wickets so quickly we were under pressure. We recovered well after that, but we could have added 25-30 runs more. And then we could not build enough pressure with the ball."

Misbah said his batsmen did a decent job in the tournament but the bowlers were found wanting.

"You need partnerships in the bowling department as well. Saeed (Ajmal) was bowling really well, but we were leaking runs in the other end.

"Our batting was a positive sign in the series, Shehazad and Afridi and Alam and Akmal and Hafeez all played really good knocks. They batted sensibly and contributed really well."

He said Pakistan would do well in the upcoming World Twenty20 as they have acclimatised well with the conditions.

"Most of the guys in the T20 side are in good form and we've been playing here for a while so we have a great chance in the World T20," said Misbah, who is not in the Pakistan T20 squad.[/img]