Awful Sri Lanka boggle cricketing logic

You're at this fancy pub, drinking and having the time of your life. You're celebrating a record win over a team that's just plain happy to be playing Test cricket in the first place. But that's not your fault, you're toasting away thinking 'what a great performance that was'. You've probably forgotten all the other problems you face.

There's a stronger looking group beside you. All tattoos, moustaches, beards and fancy hairstyles. They're louder and frankly intimidate you, but in your drunken stupor, you think you can take them on. You challenge them for a match, and when they turn up, you realise you are just what you were at the pub - a team drunk on a previous victory but no match against a top class, professional side.

A drunk, hungover team could have even been forgiven for such a performance, but Sri Lanka, the seventh best Test side in the world, had no such excuses for their shambolic show against India. They were playing in their own backyard, and made pitches to try and suit their style. In the end, they only came out looking like a group of amateur cricketers who under some false bravado challenged a team that won Tests like it was the only thing they knew to do, a group of players as merciless as they were skilful.

But surely, labelling an international team an amateur side is harsh, you say? Think again?

Sri Lanka played some inexplicable cricket, took some incomprehensible decisions and made some laughable mistakes on their way to an embarrassing 0-3 drubbing.

-> Sri Lanka had loaded their team with five specialist bowlers. Their captain, the selectors and the team had seen the pitch and deemed it fit to play three specialist spinners in the attack. Within the first hour, they had to resort to the medium-pace of Dimuth Karunaratne to get them a wicket. Maybe Sri Lanka rate Karunaratne's bowling very highly, but to rest your hopes on someone who has bowled less than 10 overs in international cricket, and less than 80 in all First-Class cricket defied logic. It allowed India's two key batsmen to set themselves in, and gift India a big start. Karunaratne bowled seven largely uneventful overs for 30 runs, neither creating any panic for the batsmen nor stopping the heavy leakage of runs. India had to contend with a bowler who could not bowl fast, could not swing the ball nor keep the lines and lengths constant. They didn't complain, and by the time Karunaratne was done with his spell, India had already taken the advantage. But this was only the first of such ridiculous phases that Sri Lanka went through in the final Test.

-> Dilruwan Perera was supposed to be Sri Lanka's premier spinner. He and Rangana Herath were the side's spinners for the first two Tests, and with Herath missing the final game due to injury, Perera had a lot more responsibility thrust on his shoulders. After all, he had more Tests than the rest of the bowlers put together. Perera would have expected the ball to be thrown at him at every available opportunity, but surprisingly,