Ponting says We were outplayed

Matches:
AUS vs WI, 6th Jun 2009
Australia captain Ricky Ponting had few arguments after his sides were lengthily outplayed by West Indies in their opening match at the Oval.
West Indian complement Chris Gayle hit 88 as the Aussies were believably beaten by seven wickets.

Ponting accepted his side were made to pay for slow starts in each innings, firstly when both he and Shane Watson fell in the first over of their innings and then when Gayle and opening partner Andre Fletcher (52) destroyed his attack from the off in reply.

"We were just a bit sloppy," Ponting conceded. "We'd spoken coming into the game about making sure we get the first over of each innings right and, as it turned out, we lost two wickets in our batting innings and they took a lot off our first bowling over as well [10 from Brett Lee). With the game being as short as it is you can't afford to give momentum away likes that early on in either innings and we did it in both innings. You've got to give them credit. I felt 169 was going to be a competitive total if we took some wickets up front with the new ball but they took us on, hit the boundaries early and got all the momentum going their way. They outplayed us today, for sure."

Ponting's men head into their second match - against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge on Monday - in the knowledge that they must win to stand any chance of reaching the Super Eights. Australia were in a similar spot of bother during the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 - when they lost their opener against Zimbabwe - so will hope history can repeat itself.

"We are in exactly the same position as we were last time and we managed to beat England well," Ponting recalled. "I guess some of the guys who were in the tournament last time will know that, it will be in the back of their minds and we know that we have to do that - there is nowhere else for us to go now. We'll have a chat about the game on the way up to Nottingham tonight and hopefully when we hit the ground on Monday we can start a bit better."
Source: www.cricket.yahoo.com