Thaindian News

Ahmedabad, Mar. 26 (ANI): Australian captain Ricky Ponting has defended his decision to go into the quarterfinal match against India with his pace arsenal, and rejected suggestions that Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson failed to spearhead the defending champions to a fourth consecutive World Cup.

According to the Courier Mail, the national selectors were banking on the unnerving pace of Lee, Tait and Johnson to blast through rivals - but the Indians took the trio apart to send Australia crashing out of the tournament.

Lee finished with 1-45 from 8.4 overs, while Tait (1-52 from seven) was wildly erratic and Johnson conceded 41 runs for no wickets.

But Ponting said his pace triumvirate could not be blamed for Australia’s crushing exit.

“Those three guys are probably our best three one-day bowlers in any conditions,” he said.

“If you look at what we could have done differently as the tournament went on, we could have played John Hastings and not one of those quicks, but you couldn’t leave Lee or Johnson out,” he added.

The pace trio all had their moments at this tournament.

Lee took 13 wickets at 18.08, while Tait (11 at 24) and Johnson (10 at 23.10) were far from being impotent. Collectively, they took 34 of Australia’s 50 wickets.

Ponting paid tribute to the lion-hearted Lee.

“He has given a lot for Australian cricket his whole career,” he said. (ANI)