our loss to Australia

my take on the loss - so be it. in my humble opinion (IMHO) we lost because we couldn't execute the given strategy - yes yes please bear with me...

resting the bowlers I believe was designed to get our batting kick-started. I think the coach and captain probably wanted to see if we could get our batting line-up firing on all cylinders at a match. all the matches up to now(and including the Oz match) we have had a pair of batters who have been able to see the game to a face-saving total that could be defended by the superior bowling. what would happen if the master-bowlers were not there? you would then need a total well in the region of 270-300 to defend against.

I reckon the game plan had been to have Upul and Sanath get to at least 50, get Mahela and Chamara to about 150 and then Russell Arnold and Dilshan to about 250. the tail were to bring home the last 25-50 runs. the bowlers were meant to bowl as tight a line as possible and step up to the plate on this pitch.

I guess we failed to execute - but what do I know...