Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara heaped praise on Tillekeratne Dilshan and Angelo Mathews, the main architects of the country’s triumph in the semi-final clash against the West Indies at The Oval on Friday. While Dilshan has been a revelation in the tournament becoming the only batsman to score over 300 runs, Mathews’ inclusion in the side had been a matter of debate, until the last semi-final clash, with critics arguing that the experienced Farveez Maharoof would have been the better choice.

But he proved his critics wrong providing impetus to the Sri

Lankan innings by hitting 12 runs off four balls in the last over of the innings and then, immediately afterwards, picked up three wickets in a fine 1st over where he went through the defences of West Indies’ top order, all bowled off deflections.

"We all have been very impressed with his performance, not in just this tournament, but over the last year and half with the ‘A’ team, Provincial side and his club. When he went to South Africa with the ‘A’ team, he scored lot of hundreds and when he went back to Colombo, he scored a double hundred and hundreds to show that he was very hungry to get into the Sri

Lankan side," Sangakkara said.

"When you initially look at him, you think he’s not the ideal T-20 player, but I think he can fit into any form of cricket. He’s very talented and mature and reads the game well. He brings a lot of things to our side. Against the West Indies we saw how he batted, how he fielded and how well he bowled. I think he’s got a great future and he’s on the right track," Sangakkara further said on the former SL under-19 captain.

Dilshan, meanwhile, has brought a total new dimension to the side since being pushed as an opener in one-day cricket early this year. He’s been the highest run scorer in the competition having scored with 317 runs and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis comes a distant second with 238 runs.

Dilshan’s unbeaten 96 runs, scored against the West Indies, is also the best innings in this tournament surpassing Chris Gayle’s 88 against Australia in a group game.

"All the batsmen need to take a cue from Dilshan. He’s been a great revelation since opening the innings for us. Hopefully, he’ll come up with another big one in the final and help us to overcome the last hurdle." Sangakkara added.

Sri Lanka is the only team to remain unbeaten in the competition having won all their six games to date while co-finalists Pakistan have gone down to both Sri Lanka and England. Sangakkara felt the ability to rise up to the occasion by his players has enabled them to be a formidable outfit in the tournament.

"When you have the names that I have in my side, captaincy becomes very, very easy. They make me look a lot better than I am," a modest Sangakkara said.

Despite an unbeaten record, Sangakkara reiterated the need not to take things for granted.