St George’s: Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene dismissed suggestions that his two key bowlers were “tactically rested” in a World Cup Super Eight match against Australia.

“They have been playing continuous cricket and we thought today was the best time to give them break. There is nothing more or less to it,” said Jayawardene on the decision to rest Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralidharan.

“That wasn’t the intention (to deny the Australians practice). We wanted to give them a break and not pick till they were 100 per cent fit.

“We never wanted to devalue the match and took it with all seriousness. But we would have been hurt had they played and picked injury.

“That was the reason why Vaas was not played in two warm-up games in the World Cup. He was also given a break on the tour to India just before the World Cup. We want to make sure they don’t burn-out at this stage of the tournament.”

Sri Lanka were handed a seven-wicket drubbing.

“If you are not at your best against Australia, they are going to punish you. They’ve set very high standards.”

“They play very aggressively while bowling and when batting, their batters are looking to take attacks apart,” Jayawardene said.

Jayawardene made special reference of Nathan Bracken and Shaun Tait even though the latter went for some runs from Sri Lanka’s top order batsmen. “Bracken has usually bowled well against us and he put pressure on us by first using the new ball well and then adjusting his length to bowl his slow cutters.”

Jayawardene also rubbished the suggestion that he took out Russel Arnold from bowling his off-spinners after he had picked up two wickets in his first two overs. “It was power play and Arnold had got rid of left-handed openers. We did not think he would be that effective against right-handers.”

(PTI)