It would also have made sense if Headingley were still a seamer, but it ain’t really.

Bang on about Sri Lanka’s openers. Sometimes just enough is just enough.

I can understand Captain Cook wanting to bowl first at Headingley, as there’s always a good chance of the Lankans getting blown away a seam-friendly wicket — get both openers out cheaply, then watch as Mahela nicks one behind early on, bringing in the walking wicket that is Thirimanne…and suddenly SL could be 60/4 well before lunch. I’d have put money on that happening if, as usual, the Tests had taken place before the OD series.

In my eyes, much of Mahela and Sanga’s success this tour has been down to Karunaratne and Silva weathering the new ball. They may not have scored big, but they did their jobs.

Anyway, the toss would have been a tough call. In hindsight, the wrong one. Would have been a good toss for Cook to lose.

Arguably, another mistake was winning the toss and bowling. Another day with their feet up would have helped the bowlers (or maybe, going off his own form, Cook thought it wouldn’t be that long) and it seems odd to choose to bat last against a team which ordinarily relies heavily on spin.

The cause might be cumulative, whereas the effect is sudden and dramatic. That is observed in many endurance problems.

A fair chunk of randomness is seemingly involved too. Throughout the world the military do research into human reactions to extreme physical conditions…altitude, heat, cold, endurance effort…trying but failing to draw conclusions about who can endure what for how long…

In cricket, it boils down to common sense. Freddie lacked that common sense when he bowled himself into the ground (e.g. at Lord’s against those pesky Lankans) and probably shortened his career through one mindless lunge for captaincy glory.

Ali Cook has shown similarly (although hopefully less damaging) absence of common sense in the recent series. His ludicrously delayed use of Moeen Ali on Day 4 at Leeds being the most obvious example. Jimmy and Broad looked broken by the end of the match and I’ll be surprised if both are fit for selection against India at Trent Bridge.

But when I have fallen apart in marathons it happens very quickly and the descent is very very rapid.

Bring in Stokes and Woakes for Ballance and Robson. 6 medium pacers should be enough to stop them getting tired.

Bring back Collingwood as captain and to bowl some dibblydobblers, and Borthwick in for Bell to share the spin responsibilities with Ali and Root.

Eckersley has FC wickets too, so he can keep.

It recalls the quote that “it all came down to two balls” like the rest is happenstance and entirely out of Cook’s control.

Well, seems like it is.