Marsh: Australia are in the lap of the gods now

Australia were left "devastated" and "shattered" after being pushed to the brink of elimination having suffered successive losses to Zimbabwe, then Sri Lanka, at the T20 World Cup.

With co-hosts Sri Lanka having run down a target of 182 in 18 overs in Pallekele, Australia need two other results in their group to go their way, and also need to hand out an almighty thumping to Oman to have any chance of making the Super Eights. For Australia to make it, Zimbabwe must lose to both Ireland and Sri Lanka, and even then Australia are left relying on their net run rate being superior to Zimbabwe's. At present Zimbabwe's is significantly better.

"It's a pretty shattered group," Marsh said after the eight-wicket loss. "It's a devastated bunch and we're in the lap of the gods now. There's a lot of emotion in the changing rooms right now. We haven't been at our best.

"I dare say we'll all be watching the match tomorrow (Zimbabwe vs Ireland). Whether it's all together or not we'll wait and see. What do you say? The luck of the Irish?"

Australia had raced to 97 for no loss after eight overs against Sri Lanka, but then lost all 10 wickets in the next 12, going at only seven an over in that period when they had been rocketing at more than 12 early on. This was the period Marsh ultimately blamed most for Australia's loss.

"It was probably execution that let us down tonight," he said. "That full strength batting line-up has some of the best players of spin in Australia. I thought Sri Lanka pulled it back beautifully, and we ended up a few short after the start we got. We probably needed those runs going into the second innings. I had great belief we would get the job done, but we were outplayed.

"I guess we'll never know what would have happened if we made 220, but as I said earlier, we had a good platform and we just couldn't execute at the back end. I know that in these conditions partnerships are incredibly important. Outside the opening partnership, we just weren't able to find another one to get the innings going again."

In any case this is a galling position for an Australia side that had been so confident of making the later stages, that they had declined to replace the injured Josh Hazlewood in their squad until Sunday. The reason for that delay is that they wished to leave their options open as to which kind of player would replace Hazlewood, the primary options having been seamer Sean Abbott and batter Steven Smith.

Smith was announced as the official replacement for Hazlewood on Monday, after Australia's campaign progress to the Super Eights had already been jeopardised by the loss to Zimbabwe. Smith did not end up playing this game, with Marsh coming back into the XI having sufficiently recovered from a groin injury.

Marsh didn't see this uncertainty as having played a role in Australia's current predicament, however.

"If you look back over the last two years at the white-ball squads, we've had moving parts every tour and every game. That's something you're sort of forced into at times. We were just outplayed tonight and that's disappointing."