It's a great opportunity for us, says Malinga

Lasith Malinga, the stand-in skipper for Dinesh Chandimal, hoped that Sri Lanka would overcome the final-match mental block that has seen them lose in four summit clashes in the last seven years. Excerpts from his Saturday’s media interaction. 

On losing so many finals: We're really happy to play in many World Cup finals. It's a great feeling as you play for the country but obviously disappointed over losing them. Actually, we have played consistently well over the years and that's something many teams couldn't do. I feel that we've got another opportunity and I'm hoping that we'll do well tomorrow (Sunday).

On mood in the dressing room: Everybody knows this is a final. But they are concerned about how they can perform in the middle and they don’t talk much.

On India’s strengths and weaknesses: As a captain, I'll never consider the strengths of the opposition. I always consider what my batsmen and bowlers can do. If the players in my team can bat and bowl well, that'll be important to win the match. So I'm not worried over the matter of what kind of players are playing in the opposition team.

On toss: No one can tell what's going to happen with the spin of the coin but whether we win or lose the toss, we'll have to be prepared. There's another game (women’s final) before our match. So we'll have to keep watching on what's happening in that match and how the wicket is going to behave. We'll have to make a call accordingly.

On changing status of surface: India have a very strong batting line up, which runs into the tail. Yesterday (On Friday), they proved that they can bat well under any circumstances. However, we cannot depend on what happened yesterday. We're playing a fresh match and we'll play the brand of cricket which we have been playing over the past few weeks.

On leading Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara: We all know that they are great cricketers not just in Sri Lanka, but in the world. I have played under both of them, and now they are playing under me. I’m very happy to be in this position. They always help the younger players. We all want to do our best for these two (who retire from T20I after this event). It’s a special day tomorrow and we have to do something special.