COLOMBO, Aug 2: Sri Lanka skipper Marvan Atapattu is hoping Sunday's Asia Cup victory will be the catalyst for a winning streak in the coming months.

Sri Lanka's fortunes have been mixed in the past 18 months but Atapattu is confident his team is developing fast.

"We have shown in this tournament what we are capable of," he told reporters after they beat India by 25 runs in the final. "There has been a different feeling in the squad and everyone is working and feeling for each other at the moment."

"This does not mean that we will not be defeated but the winning streak can be extended if we do our basics right and if we have our unity right." India skipper Saurav Ganguly was left perplexed by his team's latest flop in the final of a one-day tournament.

They have now won just one out of 13 finals during his tenure. "It is difficult for me to say what the reason is," Ganguly admitted after a final they had looked likely to win after restricting Sri Lanka to a modest 228 for nine.

"There is definitely something that we are not doing right because as a team you cannot lose so many finals," he added. "We were expecting to win this tournament so it's disappointing but I don't think it's a setback for us as a team.

"It is, though, an eye opener and we have to make sure we get back to where we were in our next tournament in Holland. "We need to be a bit more intense in the field and have to get our thought processes right."

Ganguly refused to blame the spin-friendly pitch, which turned square from the start and proved extremely difficult to score quickly on. "It wasn't easy batting second but we should still have got 228 as we had the batting depth with seven batsmen in this game," said Ganguly

"There is no point in blaming the wicket as these are the challenges that you face when you tour - we should have adapted to it. "We have bowled pretty decently here, but the batting has not been up to standard, especially in the final." -Reuters