At the Gabba on Tuesday, the Sri Lankan vice-captain was the beneficiary of Koertzen's poor umpiring when his appeal for caught behind against Rohit Sharma was upheld despite the Indian totally missing a straighter one from Muttiah Muralitharan.

“The only reason I appeal is if I hear a noise,” Sangakkara told newsmen. “If I think the batsman has nicked it, we appeal and wait for the decision. We as players have to realise that it goes both ways. No one is perfect.

Players make mistakes at certain times and the same goes for the umpires. These guys are the best umpires going around and if they do make a mistake, you get on with the game. As long as you have the rapport and the confidence in each other, there'll be less misunderstandings. The whole beauty of cricket is that human element. I think the teams playing this tournament, if they do appeal, then we should be humble enough to accept whatever the decision is.”

Sangakkara said despite India posting 267 for four, Sri Lanka had fancied their chances before the rains came down and didn't allow their chase to begin. Asked if he was satisfied with his bowlers' efforts, he replied, “We always knew that if India's batsmen stuck around, they could get to that total. If I had probably held on to Gautam's catch (Sangakkara dropped centurion Gambhir when he was 11), maybe that would have turned things around a bit. Gambhir batted very well. Once he got through the initial period, he settled himself to bat through the overs. It was a very good knock and he'll probably take a lot of confidence from it.

“At the end of the day, the last 10 overs is something we need to work on,” he observed in acknowledgement of the fact that Gambhir and Mahendra Singh Dhoni had added 105 in that period.

Sri Lanka’s next game is against the Australians, in Sydney on Friday. “We always go on tours with no illusions. We know that we just have to adapt to whatever comes our way,” Sangakkara said of the team going into the game without a bat on Tuesday. “The guys have trained hard and they are looking forward to the contest. As long as we can enjoy the contest, I think everything will fall in place.”