Ponting baffled by early exit

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Australia lasted just four days in the tournament, only Scotland and Bangladesh exited earlier, losing first to West Indies by seven wickets and then by six to Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge on Monday night.

"We obviously had very high expectations. I don't know where we went wrong, to tell the truth," he admitted, after half-centuries from Tillekeratne Dilshan (53) and Kumar Sangakkara (55no) helped Sri Lanka through to the Super Eights at Australia's expense.

The job was done with six balls to spare, after Ajantha Mendis (three for 20) had helped to restrict Australia to only 159 for nine.

Ponting's team were conceivably rocked by key all-rounder Andrew Symonds' departure on the eve of the tournament for disciplinary reasons.

"The attitude around the group was great coming into the tournament, and we had some very good form in the warm-up matches," he explained.

"But the way we've played in the last two games, we've made way too many mistakes. You just can't afford to do that against good teams.

"I'd like to be able to tell you I knew what was going wrong. That's five international Twenty20 games we've lost in a row. That is a bit of a worrying trend."

Ponting and Co must come to terms with a shock to the system, and put it behind them in time to face England in five Tests, starting in Cardiff early next month.

"I couldn't be happier with the squad the selectors picked. I think if you look at our team on paper it probably stacks up as well as any of the others going around. But when the big moments have come around, we've just stumbled."