Sri Lanka move in for kill against floundering Aussies

David, David, David!!! Since when do we take out the top 2 scores of each innings, then compare the rest of the runs to see who has the most momentum? Over the two finals, the top 4 aussie scores have been higher than the top 4 SL scores (in aggregate), so obviously the SL batsmen outside of these have scored more than the Aussies. AFD!!! (in case you are wondering, the A is for Absolute and the D is for Drivel)

Interesting point about the two new balls, though lee is carrying a broken toe which must be hampering him somewhat. Malinga seems to have lost a fair bit of his effectiveness at the end of innings as well, largely because of the lack of reverse swing.

I'd definately look to make them bat first, although that could be seen as a sign of mental weakness, which could give a big boost to SL, and if we're using the same pitch for both games it could start to break up a litte bit. No doubt it was a poor showing with the ball, I was just making the point that the slower bowlers weren't any better. Pattinson has been ruled out with a muscle strain so that would clear the way for Lyon, or Hilfenhaus i guess (shudder.) I was surprised when they dropped Mckay for the first final and kept Pattinson giving the reason of "team balance." Like you, I think Lee and Pattinson are very similar and Mckay at least is a different style of bowler. We certainly appear to lack a genuine wicket taker. With Lee carrying an injury, Pattnson not match fit (and now injured) and Watson not at 100% either, there really isn't much strike power. The likes of Doherty and Mckay seem to rely on getting their wickets by building pressure to draw poor shots then good balls so they aren't very effective when the batsmen are scoring so easliy. I would have loved to have seen a Coulter-Nile or Mcdermott given a chance. They're both young and talented but, more importantly, can bowl at the death and take wickets. Even a recall for Starc could have been a decent gamble. he's very inconsistent but on his day he is capable of ripping through a line-up. He could just as easily get smashed, but sometimes you need to take risks.

Lee just doesn't look up to it anymore and the 2 new balls has taken away his main weapon in reverse swing. Hilfy has never been good in this format so it shouldn't be any surprise why he is struggling. NCN and McDermott are two of the better OD bowlers going around.

The tail is definitely the problem, we pretty much collapse once Christian is out. I don't believe Christian is the problem, he was good in earlier games when we collapsed the problem was when he tried to accelerate and got out then the tail did nothing.

That would be "in each of 3 tests', not teats, my bad!

Warner, yep, great, however as everyone was quick to bag P Forrest for his slow rr recently, so we should with Warner and he has all this international experience, a superstar apparently, so get on with it! I find it curious that Copeland was able to remove Dilshan in each of 3 teats and Mahela in one on flat tracks offering nothing in Sri Lanka, maybe there is a reason for that! I know he has not put the wickets on the board in Ryobi OD cricket however he has the ability to slow the run rate, build pressure and get good players out. He doesn't bowl the garbage that another new superstar Pattinson (and don't tell me he's only young, he has shown he can bowl and do it very well, so be much more disciplined), Lee, McKay have bowled and particularly last night, even Hilfhenhaus has been ordinary. Take pace of the ball please, good reason not everyone has to bowl at 140k's cause sometimes that is just too easy to smash! I have a strong feeling a few of these bowlers have now been found out against a much stronger opposition, as opposed to the soft indians.Just maybe the test success went straight to a few heads...

Matt, it was possibly a bit of both, but certainly it was a poor show with the ball first and foremost. I say that one of Pattinson or Lee would make way for Lyon simply because they're very similar bowlers, and that's perhaps the poor tactic part. I guess the question is, is whether a 1 real quick + 1 med-fast + 2 med pacers + 2 finger spinners + Dave Hussey attack is going to be good enough. Perhaps it might be worth getting SL out of their comfort zone, and make them bat first??

Jamal?! Aust would have still lost with 320, yet 270 was defendable?? You Irish? I think the lesson out of this is that on a flat track, it can be dangerous to bat first. The batting team cruises along at 5.5/over, thinking they're going well, when in fact they should be going harder. Consequently they set a very achievable target. It was a run/ball wicket. Clarke knew it, Warner didn't.

Doherty and Pattinson were. Lee was injured (and is playing with injury now which seems stupid.) Even if they weren't in the national team it was a very packed domestic schedule, especially in the few months before the BBL started. Each state played their first 6 SS matches i the first 8 weeks. That's a lot of cricket. Throw in the WIndies tour and a few of the players will have gone for about 9 months with barely any time off. Given that the 5-6 months after that only involves 10 ODI's and a T20 World Cup, and that the team had 4 or so months off before the SL tour, you have to question whether the schedule could have been spread out a bit better. Of course another reason could be that we're playing injured players whilst SL aren't. Clarke and Warner are both injured as is Lee. Watson and Pattinson played minimal matches before they were recalled after returning from injury, and they don't look match fit. That's not an excuse for the loss as SL are a very good ODI side (they did make the last world cup final after all) more of a criticism of the selections.It's good to see that Pat Howard's decree that players must be 100% fit in order to be picked is being followed.......................

They are professionals and all International sides play heaps of cricket these days. The too tired excuse is not good enough, from memory neither Lee, Hilfenahus, Pattinson, McKay or Doherty even went to SL in August.

The problem is the long tail which starts at 8. The top order have no confidence in it batting through. And what exactly is Christian's role at 7, his batting is not trusted to bat till the end and his bowling is never good enough for 10 Overs. There are 4 bowlers who hardly bat plus Watson/Hussey bowling 10 between them every game anyways. Compare this Mathews for SL who finishes games as a batsman and can bowl 10.

Bowling was better in Brisbane. Wickets had tumbled down to 2 or 3 left with 34 balls to go in Brisbane. The Adelaide the bowlers were taken to the cleaners and Sri Lanka made them look 2nd rate

"If Australia scored 320, we probably would have still lost." 320 was enough in Brisbane.

The Hussey's are unreliable? Where'd you come up with that BS? Dave Hussey tops the run scorers or is close to it and Mike isn't far back.

I still prefer we go back to the way we did under Gilly and Hayden, aggressive opening starts like what SL are doing. But it's a bit hard to do when you are 2 down. We scored the 320 on the back of a big opening stand, we scored 272 on the back of a lackluster opening stand that was compounded by Watson's lackluster innings. However to pin the loss on the batting is silly, the last 2 games at the Adelaide oval suggest 270 is more than competitive if you bowl well enough. India needed 13 runs when we scored 269 while SL tied with a total of 235. Factor in the fact the ball was hopping around and that total should have been at least competitive. We had Mahela caught and Dilshan edging one through the vacant 2nd slip, take those 2 chances and this game would have been a lot closer.

Clarke won't be bowling for a while

Pattinson not up to the standard of a finals series against a good Sri Lanka team. Warner's s/r of 70 was too slow. While he scored another century he is still unsure of how to bat in ODI's. While its easy to be critical of Warner's low s/r David's point of taking out the top 2 scores shows how unreliable the rest of the batsmen are. If Warner is slowing his scoring rate down because he needs to stay in then that a double blow to Australia. Inconsistent + slow scoring Warner.

I can't believe that some people on here are blaming the batting tactics as the reason why Australia lost this game. If Australia had scored about 320, we probably would have still lost. The biggest problem right now is the bowling. 272 was still a competitive and defend-able total. The Sri Lankans still had 8 wickets + 34 balls up their sleeves. McKay, Watson and Christian are very similar bowlers. This is ok, but Christian and McKay have lost their way in the finals. Pattison has been found out a bit and cannot handle it when the pressure is put on. Brett Lee has been going well but still goes for a few. Doherty had a great start to the CB series, but has gotten poorer as series has continued. I would like to see David Hussey used more and maybe even Clarke himself.

Gee what surprise. Australia win the first final, then all of a sudden start batting slowly and Sri Lanka win, the second finals. Hey presto! Third Final!! Amazing how often it happens... At least it wasn't the bookies I guess.