Men's ODI WC: 'I'm not here to sit and make excuses', says Labuschagne after Australia's 134-run loss to South Africa

Lucknow, Oct 13 (IANS) Marnus Labuschagne expressed that Australia is ready to embrace the challenge of needing to secure victory in six, if not all, of their remaining seven 2023 World Cup matches and believes there is still time for the five-time champions to regain their best form and qualify for the knockout stages.

Australia's troubles in the field continued as they let slip five catches, highlighting a concerning pattern of subpar fielding performances.

All-rounder Marcus Stoinis missed an easy catch during South Africa's innings. Skipper Pat Cummins also dropped a straightforward return catch off his own bowling. Mitchell Starc, Josh Inglis, and sub-fielder Sean Abbott were among others who missed opportunities in the field.

Additionally, Australia's batting lacked momentumas their batters struggled and eventually managed only 177 in response to South Africa's 311/7, resulting in their second consecutive defeat when they suffered a 134-run loss at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference, Labuschagne made no excuses for Australia's poor performance in the field and expects his side to execute better in this discipline as the tournament progresses.

"I'm not here to sit and make excuses. We're playing a World Cup for Australia, we have to be ready and we have to be better than that. It's hard to put your finger on it, we're one of the best fielding sides in the world. We pride ourselves on that," Labuschagne was quoted by cricket.com.au website.

"We just didn't seem to get it right today. We created opportunities and just didn't take them and it just wasn't a great performance from us, but we have to bounce back and get this train rolling," he said.

While talking about Thursday's loss, Labuschagne added it was a tough loss to swallow but there was no time to "sit and sulk in the changing rooms".

"We can be disappointed about this performance, we can be disappointed about lots of things... but the reality is you can't sit and sulk in the changing room. But we've got to take action and we've got to get our tournament underway.

"In three days' time we've got Sri Lanka here and we're going need to win every game from here I assume, or at least go close to get into that (final) four. We haven't started well, but this is the beginning not the end."

Australia will next face Sri Lanka,who is also winless in their two matches, on Monday at the same venue.