Dress Rehearsal and Shrewd Tactics

Excellent article.
Other differences:
Aus - Batsman heavy, go back to their fist choice XI.
SL - Not batsman heavy and are without their top three bowlers.

I think that SL are trying to get some psychological advantage since whatever the result of this game, they will end up playing NZ in the semis and also if they win or even run the Aussies close with a second string side, the Aussies might panic. Why unleash Murali on them when he can be held back and used as a shock weapon with the newly perfected doosra and the round the wickets to right handers line in The Final. Tom & Mahela, Brilliant move?

Sure the bowling will be strengthened by the return of Vaas, Murali and Malinga. But the problem has been the batting. Without the exception of the most-experienced ODI player in the world, Sanath Jayasuriya, and Chamara Silva, to a lesser extent, none of the batsmen have stamped their authority and won the game. They should have brought in Marvan Atapattu in place of Upul Tharanga to give him some match practice. He wasn't even in the side against Ireland. However, all of the challenger sides have beaten each other. Soouth Africa beat Sri Lanka who beat New Zealand who beat South Africa and Australia (atleast in the previous ODI series). So finally the competitive matches begin after the rest of the Super 8s. I do not think there will be a repeat of the last two one-sided finals.

Will Stephen Fleming rest Shane Bond for the dead rubber against Australia?