Daily Times

NEW DELHI: Australia got their tactics and team selection all wrong in Thursday’s World Cup defeat by South Africa and the five-times champions must quickly get their act together if they are to avoid a group-stage exit, said former skipper Michael Clarke. The 134-run loss in Lucknow marked a second straight defeat at the 50-overs showpiece and Clarke said things do not get any easier with Sri Lanka and Pakistan up next for Australia, who have failed to reach 200 runs in both games so far. “I’m not saying our World Cup is over. We could still qualify with two losses, but Sri Lanka are going to be tough in those conditions. We haven’t played Pakistan yet,” Clarke told Sky Sports Radio. “We’ve got some really tough cricket ahead of us and if we play like this, we are not qualifying. I’m more worried about the subcontinent teams. “If we’re getting shown up like that against South Africa, with the spin in the sub-continent teams … we’ll be laughable. “If we’re not careful the conversation we’ve been having for the last three weeks about the Wallabies, in two weeks’ time we’ll be having that about Australian cricket,” said Clarke, who won the World Cup twice with Australia in 2007 and 2015.