Brow-beaten Australia mulls on poor ICC World Twenty20 show

In the first match, while a gritty knock by Chris Gayle (88 off 50 balls, 6 4s, 6 6s) helped West Indies crush Australia by 7 wickets although the latter scored a challenging total of 169 runs in the mandatory 20 overs, in the second, their winds were punched out by Kumar Sangakkara (55 n.o. off 42 balls, 4 4s, 2 6s), who helped Sri Lanka easily overcome the 160 target set by the Aussies with six wickets to spare.

The successive defeats meant that Australia was out of the tournament with the likes of Bangladesh and Scotland.

So what made Australia, which has led the world rankings in Test matches for several years and have won the last three World Cups, fail to come to terms with cricket's newest, shortest format?

Team captain Ricky Ponting may have the answers. Ponting said he was very happy with the team's preparation in the run-up to the tournament but "when the big moments have come along we've just stumbled."

"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," he said.