Symonds loss plays a big part in
Aussies elimination

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

NOTTINGHAM: Australia’s preparations for the Ashes series in England later this summer took a battering when they were unceremoniously dumped out of the ICC World Twenty20 tournament following their loss to Sri Lanka in a Group C match played at Trent Bridge on Monday.
Defeat by six wickets following Saturday’s seven wickets loss to the West Indies meant that Australia finished at the bottom of their group. Australia entered this tournament with high hopes of filling their trophy cabinet with the only piece of silverware they have yet to win. But the reality is their lack of a top-class slow bowler cost them dearly. How they would have yearned for another Shane Warne in their side as the Trent Bridge pitch encouraged spin to the extent that Ajantha Mendis, Muthiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya were able to put the shackles on their batting.
“I’d like to be able to tell you I knew what was going on,” said a disappointed Ponting at the post-match press conference. “That’s five international Twenty20 games we’ve lost in a row. That’s a bit of a worrying trend for our team and our group. I couldn’t have been happier with what we’ve done leading into the tournament, everything was spot on. But when the big moments have come along we’ve just stumbled,” he said.
“The group we’re in, with the West Indies and Sri Lanka, we knew that they were two very dangerous sides and if we made mistakes they’d make us pay. That’s certainly the way it’s turned out. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that we’re not through to the next stage, for the reason that I can’t really understand why. Everything was going along so nicely for us and now we find ourselves out of the tournament altogether. That’s it,” Ponting said.
There was no hiding the fact that the loss of all-rounder Andrew Symonds on disciplinary ground had a big impact on the Aussie performance.
Ponting conceded the eleventh hour loss of Symonds severely disrupted the balance of the Australian side.
“It upset a lot of our structures around the team,” Ponting said. “Andrew is one of those guys who had just been over in the IPL for the last couple of months. He’s one of the best individual players in this form of the game anywhere in the world, so when you do lose somebody like that out of your side it does throw a spanner in the works, for sure.
“But we’re not going to use that as an excuse. We had 14 other guys here who had to step up in his absence, and we’ve been good enough to do that in the past when we’ve lost some of our better players out of the side. Over the last few days we haven’t been good enough.
“I haven’t actually heard any talk about Symo not being around in the last few days so I would like to think that hasn’t played on the minds of any of our players, but when you lose someone of the quality and the calibre of him out of your Twenty20 team, it certainly leaves a big hole,” said Ponting.
Australia now has a fortnight to fill before their Ashes tour proper begins.