The Sri Lankan team is playing brilliant cricket at the moment, in spite of their match against Australia. Whatever the reason behind resting Murali & Vaas, it was the right decision by the Sri Lankan team management. It may have been a tactical decision or a decision  taken with the aim of keeping the two bowlers fresh and fit. If it is a tactical ploy, I certainly agree with the Sri Lankan team management.

The Lankans clearly don't want to give any free batting practice to Hayden & Ponting against their best bowlers in an inconsequential match - makes sense to let them to come & show their colours in a pressure situation (everybody knows that Australia have got great batting line up this World Cup and the opposition needs to take whatever step possible to negate them) . Although several pundits have criticized that decision, had Sri Lanka won the match, none of the comments would have not been made.

At any rate, it's useless to keep on talking about the Australia match because it's just one single match and we clearly saw that the Sri Lankan team played that match in a rather 'ordinary' way and without their full strength. I am pretty sure the next SL vs Aus crash would be a nail biting one and Australia will be made to sweat for the first time in this World Cup.

As far as the semi final against New Zealand is concerned, all we need is for the middle order needs to fire. The only other main concern is Upul Tharanga's poor performance in the previous games. However, this final stage is clearly not the best time to change and toy around with the combinations and so, I personally believe Marvan should not play the next two games despite his greater experience.

No Sri Lankan is really concerned about Jayasuriya's performance in semi finals. Rather, everybody wants to see Sanath's performance in the final. That is the key game.... if he performs well in the final, no matter what, the World Cup 2007 will be Lanka's. Sanath Jayasuriya is a player who can exhibit the true definition of a 'match winning' performance.

Although we have seen good batting performances in most of the previous World Cups, this time it was the Lankan bowlers who lifted our game up to this ranking. Malinga, Vaas and Murali play with so much of passion for the one day game, and offer so much variety that Lankan followers would love to watch them perform well irrespective of whether Sri Lanka win or lose. If  these Sri Lankan boys do every thing right, none of New Zealand, Australia or South Africa can beat Sri Lankans,  especially given the with ground conditions at West Indies.