His trademark swagger missing after a humiliating defeat, Australian captain Ricky Ponting on Tuesday acknowledged that Indians had "outplayed" his world champion team in the tri-series finals.
"All credit goes to the Indian team and Mahendra Singh Dhoni that they outplayed us in the last week," Ponting said after the nine-run loss in the second tri-series final at the Gabba.
Pics, match report and scorecard
Ponting, however, did not offer any excuse for the defeat and admitted that his team could not put up a good show in both the finals.
"No excuses for we haven't won. We haven't played that well as we played in the lead up games. We were not at our best in the last game at Sydney and here," he said referring to 2-0 scoreline in the best-of-three tri-series finals.
Asked by former Australian captain Mark Taylor if the off-field controversies had affected the team, Ponting said that in the last week or so things had quietened down and still the team had lost.
"All that (off-field controversies) had gone down last to last week. But we played our worst cricket in last couple of games," he said.
About India producing surprise players, Ponting said Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar did an outstanding job for their team.
"Ishant Sharma was very good in the series and Praveen Kumar also came good in the last couple of games. Ishant's presence was vital for the team but others made up well for his absence," he said.
