MOHALI: Australia captain Steve Smith was left ruing his team’s middle overs malaise after their sixth attempt to win the World Twenty20 came up short here onm Sunday.

Smith said Australia had contributed to their failure to sustain a challenge for the one major international trophy they have never won.

He paid tribute to all-rounder Shane Watson, who took 2-23 and a stunning diving catch to dismiss Yuvraj Singh in his last match as an international cricketer before retirement.

“Obviously there’s no real fairytales in sport very often,” Smith said of his 34-year-old team mate.

“Shane gave his all as he did every game for Australia, I thought he bowled beautifully tonight and looked like he was 25 again taking that catch.”

Smith was in mood to complain about his own dismissal despite television pictures indicating he had been unfortunate to be given out for two.

He said the foundations for Australia’s demise had been laid in their opener against New Zealand.

“I think we let ourselves down against New Zealand, we probably should have won that game,” Smith said.

“To lose that game by eight (runs) was quite shattering. And we were always chasing our tail from there.

“We had to win every game we played and in Twenty20 cricket that’s quite hard. It’s quite a fickle game and all it takes is one player going off, like tonight, to take the game away.”

LARA’S PRAISE

The West Indian batting great was also bowled by what he saw and requested videos of Kohli’s early days, hailing the Indian as the “best timer of a cricket ball” that he has seen.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2016