Well Done Sri Lanka !

[12th Man]

Maybe you are sorry that they didn't take any money for it ???? Only joking !

[Karthik]

None of the Australian players commented on it even when asked.Glenn McGrath however,wrote these in his column in The Hindu:

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I don't know why they were not playing.Sri Lanka probably give the players a break before the big games or maybe to disallow our batsmen from having a look at the bowling.The absence of the two of them takes out the interest of which may have been a entertaining one.

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A Sri Lankan fan was furious due to the decision.He said - "If the players need a rest,let them go on a holiday.The World Cup comes once in 4 years."

I think thats what Marvan Attapatu is doing in the West Indies.He should have had at least a couple of games.I think he might play today against Ireland.We've got to wait and watch.

[12th Man]

"A Sri Lankan FAN was annoyed" that is just one go to the DIlmah Cricket Forum and see how many genuine Sri Lankan fans are DELIGHTED !!


http://dilmahforum.cricinfo.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

[Younis Khan #1]

How can you be delighted?? I'd be ashamed.

[12th Man]

Ashamed of what ?
Ahamed of out-thinking the Aussies ?
Ashamed of giving out front line batters a knock against the front line Aussie attack in a meaningless game while they had to face our second string ?
Ashamed that our highly paid foreign coach delivering what he is paid for ?
Ashamed that our local board members had the B**ls to back ur coach ?

[Nostromo]

Originally Posted by 12th Man

Ahamed of out-thinking the Aussies ?

Out thinking the Aussies? I doubt if Ponting or anyone else lost any sleep over it before or after the match. All that happened was someone in the Sri Lanka camp thought that they would try to be too clever and it did not work out. Making conciliatory noises that 'it was all planned' will serve no purpose as no one outside is going to believe them. At best, this grand strategy is going to make absolutely no difference except that it will go down as a statistic that Oz defeated SL in one more match. At worst, it might backfire on the SL planners.

[maverick]

I think they again wanted to play the Kiwis in the semi'ss. As I said earlier which is the straight foward choice because they understand the Kiwis very well. The only backfire would be to meet Australia in the semi's. Even a loss to New Zealand in the semi would not be a backfire since NZ is the correct choice to play. So there is only one way it can be backfired - which is to meet Australia in the semi's.

The idea was fantastic. But the execution of that was poor. But still, they got much out of the game than the Aussies.

[12th Man]

How the Heck can it backfire ? The match is over , sri lanka lost no momentum at all....they murdered the Irish remember ?

If we meet the OZ in the final and they thrash us does it mean that our tactic backfired ? Why because we got under their skin and annoyed them ?

IF SO THE TACTIC HAS WORKED !!!!!

[maverick]

Originally Posted by Nostromo

Making conciliatory noises that 'it was all planned' will serve no purpose as no one outside is going to believe them.

This is the interesting part of it Nostromo. 12th Man and most of the Sri Lankan fans are not at all worried about the loss against Oz but a lot of Aussies are trying to make an explicit effort to convey that as a loss to the Sri Lankans. When a team loses their fans would be the people to get hurt! If they haven't got hurt then full stop.

And I must say Nostromo, SL have been using this exact ploy for quite a sometime now. May be this is the first time it came up big. They didn't send Vass and Murali for their last Indian tour. And you know who did the damage against India in this world cup?

[Nostromo]

For all everyone is arguing, the answer is probably the simplest and the most obvious one; like Jimmy Adams said, Vaas and M'tharan are no spring chickens and probably wanted a bit of rest from another hard match before the semi-finals, especially when the draw was more or less settled. The Ireland match would have rightly been considered a warm-up one and so they got back. I doubt very much that Sri Lanka - or any team for that matter - can take winning for granted; Oz would probably have won even if Vaas and Murali had played. Moreover, if SL really wanted to 'lose' that Super 8s match against Australia, there was no need to drop anyone. That could easily have beem 'arranged'.

If New Zealand rally to beat Sri Lanka in their semi-final encounter, explaining the decision as a 'strategy' becomes a bit harder.