Aussies need to show their class to fight back: Ponting - Reuters Africa

By Nick Mulvenney

ADELAIDE (Reuters) - Australia have the ability to fight their way back into the Ashes series after their worst defeat to England in nearly a quarter of a century -- but they need to start showing it, captain Ricky Ponting said on Tuesday.

Ponting admitted England had outplayed the Australians in the second test, which the tourists won by an innings and 71 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series, but denied there was a gulf in class between the two sides.

"It's pretty simple, we need to win two of the next three games if we want to win the Ashes but we've got to play a bit better than we have the last test match and a half," said Ponting.

"It has just been execution that has let us down," he added. "It's about dealing with pressure and, right at the moment, England are certainly dealing with those situations better than we are and we have to change that.

"And there is only one way you change that, and that is by executing your skills well for long periods of time."

Ponting said the time for talk was over and he expected his players to spend the nine days before the third test in Perth thinking about how they were going to improve.

"BAD LOSS"

"We've been talking a lot about how we're going to change things, how we're going to rectify things, but our actions have been letting us down so far," he said.   Continued...