By IANS
Sydney : Australian skipper Ricky Ponting described his side’s six-wicket loss to India as ” kick in the backside” and said that the team will have to lift themselves for the remaining finals of the Common wealth Bank Series
“It was a bit of a kick in the backside,” he said. “It wasn’t all nice stuff.”
“I thought we were a bit off the pace down there in Melbourne. I thought that was because we were excited and looking ahead to this game. I let them know you can’t switch things on and off,” Ponting said.
With the loss, Australia now face a do or die situation in the second of the three finals at the Gabba Tuesday. The team now intends to have a meeting to solve the deficiencies haunting the world champions, and will skip training in Brisbane Monday.
“We’re going to have to lift ourselves even more than we did for this game,” Ponting said. “That’s our big challenge. We’ve got a short turnaround and whichever team is switched on the most will come out the winner.”
Ponting conceded that India outsmarted Australia in all departments, but said they will leave no stone unturned to win the second final.
“The bottom line was we didn’t get enough runs, we didn’t bowl well enough or field well enough,” he said. “India out-played us in most areas, so well done to them.”
“All of us have to go away and think about areas we can improve. So I’d expect a better performance on Tuesday,” he said.