GEORGETOWN (Guyana), March 30: Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody on Thursday stressed his team needs to learn quickly from the mistakes made against South Africa during their one-wicket defeat in the Super Eights match at the Providence Stadium.

“It will be important how we come back in our match against the West Indies (on Sunday) who will also be looking for points,” said Moody.

Sri Lanka, on the verge of defeat with South Africa needing four runs with five wickets intact on Wednesday, hit back through paceman Lasith Malinga's history-making four wickets off four balls before last man Robin Peterson hit the winning runs.

Malinga became the first bowler in One-day International cricket to grab four wickets off successive deliveries and fifth to achieve a hat-trick in World Cup history.

Earlier, Sri Lanka struggled to 209 all out with South African paceman Charl Langeveldt taking a career-best five for 39.

Moody said his team failed to keep the momentum of the first round where they won all their Group B matches – including a crucial win over India.

“It was not a bad defeat, but it's a defeat. I am disappointed the way we played. We did play well in the first 30 overs but against teams like South Africa you need to play lot more than 30 overs,” Moody said.

“There are a lot more positives which we can take from the South Africa game but we need to learn very quickly from our mistakes and give a better account of ourselves on Sunday.”

The 41-year-old Moody, who played eight Tests and 76 One-day Internationals for Australia, said his team fell short by 20-30 runs which in the end were decisive factor.—AFP