It’s surprisingly Sri Lanka that took the first step by resting veterans Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas for the Super 8s game against Australia on Monday.
GRENADA: The mind games have started already and it’s surprisingly Sri Lanka that took the first step by resting veterans Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas for the Super 8s game against Australia on Monday. The decision took a lot of people by surprise even though they had been dropping hints on the eve of the game.
Having made sure of their place in the semifinal and with a game against Ireland as insurance, Sri Lanka’s move sent Ricky Ponting back to the dressing room with his mind in a tizzy.
This match was Sri Lanka’s chance to go one-up on the Aussies but instead of fielding their best line-up, they responded by dropping their two best bowlers and picking leg-spinner Malinga Bandara, who has his best bowling figures — 4-31 against Australia, and medium-pacer Nuwan Kulasekera — against what has probably been the best batting line-up in the World Cup.
The Aussies would have spent a lot of time in the pre-match meeting trying to figure out Muralitharan and the game plan that they would adopt against him. The same was probably true of Vaas too and then suddenly they find themselves facing up to bowlers of not quite the same class.
The last time the Aussies played Muralitharan was on March 28, 2004 during the final of the VB series and though they would have studied tons of video footage, it’s never quite the same as playing Muralitharan. Ponting believes that Murali’s first few overs are the toughest because that is when you are not sure of his variations. This way, when Australia and Sri Lanka face off in the final — that’s where they are most likely to meet — the world champions might just take that bit longer to get used to him.
At the toss, Ponting said: “We are fielding our best XI with the exception of Shane Watson. Nathan Bracken is in the squad for Stuart Clarke.”
It showed the level of seriousness that the Aussies were treating this match with and in response, Sri Lanka’s response would have mystified them. Australia will use this match to try and stamp their dominance over Lanka — but by not playing their best bowlers, Lanka have completely nullified that claim. The Lankans also chose to give fast bowler Lasith Malinga more time to recover.
“The pitch looked dry and we have the attack to do well. We are resting Muralitharan and Vaas because they have played quite a few games and this was a nice opportunity,” said Jayawardene.
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