Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara paid tribute to his side's multi-dimensional attack after they beat Pakistan.

Sri Lanka prevail over Pakistan

Malinga's efforts were supported by spinners Muttiah Muralitharan, who claimed two for 28, and Ajantha Mendis, who ensured Pakistan struggled to keep up with the required scoring rate for most of their reply.

"It was a great, all-round effort to defend that total when we should have had 170 or 175," enthused Sangakkara. "With better options and partnerships, we could have had a more comfortable total."

All-rounder Tillakaratne Dilshan won the man-of-the-match award after hitting 46 off 39 balls and admitted Sri Lanka were always confident of defending their total with their attack.

"It was important we got a good start and we went on from there," said Dilshan. "We're confident we can finish (the Super Eights) well.

Photogallery: SL-Pak match

"We're playing very good cricket, we know with Mendis and Murali we can defend 160 against any team. This was always a very important match, a great result and this has given us confidence."

Disappointed Pakistan captain Younus Khan, who top-scored for his side with 50 off 37 balls, blamed his side's failure to maintain their discipline for their defeat after they conceded 20 extras.

"We had a couple of early no-balls and you can't do that in this sort of cricket," he said. "You then get a free hit and four runs so it's not very good - we had 20 extras today and we lost by 19 runs so it shows how crucial it is in this form of cricket.

"At one stage I was thinking they'd score 200 or something like that, but our spinners did a good job. It's all been about the start for us in this tournament and we've struggled with that for the whole tournament."

With crucial players like Chris Gayle, Virender Sehwag, Daniel Vettori and Kevin Pietersen nursing injuries, is the slam-bang version of cricket starting to take its toll on the players? You know where to write in with your thoughts. Write in to us at: fanspeak@espnstar.co.in