Ricky won't call Tigers minnows
Australia captain Ricky Ponting refused to gloat over England's World Cup misfortunes on Saturday despite their Ashes conquerors facing elimination from the tournament.
England slumped to a two-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in Chittagong on Friday, a defeat which could spell the end of their campaign which has seen wins over Netherlands and South Africa, a tie with India and defeat to Ireland.
But Ponting isn't ready to put the boot in just yet.
"If you are talking about the tournament being exciting, every game they've played has been pretty much one that could have gone either way," said the Australia captain.
"No doubt they will be disappointed to lose last night given the position they were in [Bangladesh were 169 for eight chasing 226 for victory] and the Ireland game was quite a remarkable one and so was the India game.
"They've had their ups and downs so far."
Ponting knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of a shock defeat by Bangladesh, having seen the Tigers tame his world champions by five wickets in a one-day international in Cardiff in 2005.
"They've never been classified as a 'minnow', they beat us in Cardiff a few years ago and with all their [group] games at home, there was always a chance they could cause a couple of upsets and last night was probably one.
"They let one slip against the West Indies [Bangladesh were bowled out for 58] with a bit of an abysmal performance, but in their conditions they are a very competitive team."
Before the World Cup began, former Australia captain Allan Border summed up what many felt about an event where four teams each from two lopsided pools of seven would reach the last eight.
"The way the tournament's structured, you're going to have to play like absolute drongos [idiots] not to get through to the quarterfinals," Border, who led Australia to victory over England in the 1987 World Cup final, said.
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