Australia's assistant coach Ricky Ponting has admitted that his injury-ravaged team, beaten by South Africa in the last league game of the World Cup, is facing a tough situation but says the players can find a way to play their best game in the semifinal. Australia's defeat in their final group stage game to South Africa on Saturday was compounded with injuries to Usman Khawaja (hamstring) and Marcus Stoinis (side) that saw Matthew Wade and Mitchell Marsh pulled out of the Australia A tour to join the World Cup squad as cover.
Shaun Marsh was already been ruled out of the tournament after suffering a fractured wrist in a net session. The defending champions play pre-tournament favourites England in the second semifinals on Thursday. 'It's not unusual to have disruptions in World Cups. In the last group game before a semi-final is probably a little bit different. If you're totally honest, it's not ideal to have these sort of changes going into a World Cup semi-final, especially now we know we're playing England, the favourites coming into the tournament,' Ponting said.
