SYDNEY: Ailing Australia needs to forget about the upcoming Ashes series and concentrate on getting back to its best form in the one-day series against Sri Lanka, according to vice captain Michael Clarke. Clarke stood in for skipper Ricky Ponting in the first of three matches against Sri Lanka at the Melbourne Cricket Ground Wednesday, when a record ninth wicket stand helped the tourists fight back to claim a remarkable victory by one wicket. It was the sixth successive defeat for Australia in all forms of cricket and Clarke was particularly upset with his team's inability to close out the victory from a strong position. “The Ashes is great, everybody's looking forward to it but we need to be focused on what's in front of us because right now, we're not playing our best cricket and we need to be,” Clarke told the Cricket Australia website. “To lose a game from that position is very disappointing. What hurts the most is it's not the first time it's happened. “We got so close again and we couldn't finish the game off, which is an issue we've had for a while now in all three forms of the game. “If we're good enough to execute our plans and get the top order out, I don't see any reason why we can't do it to the tail-enders.” With the England squad already in Western Australia preparing for the start of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane on Nov. 25, the defeat did nothing to improve the mood in the increasingly critical Australian media. “Aussies discover new way to lose,” read the headline in Thursday's The Australian newspaper, while the Daily Telegraph had: “Aussie cricketers lose the unlosable”. “Once again Australia could not polish off a wounded opponent,” English columnist Peter Roebuck wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald. “Far from celebrating an encouraging victory, the Aussies found themselves suffering an astonishing defeat. Far from returning to the winning habit they snatched defeat from victory's very jaw.” Ponting, who missed Wednesday's match to attend his grandmother's funeral, will be back for the second one-dayer against Sri Lanka in Sydney Friday. Another cause for concern for Clarke was the sparse crowd at the MCG Wednesday, and the preponderance of Sri Lanka supporters among the 19,000 fans who did turn up. “Hopefully we can get some Australian support (in Sydney) because right now, we could really do with it,” Clarke said. Ferguson replaces Marsh Callum Ferguson has been drafted in to replace injured batsman Shaun Marsh in the Australian squad for the remainder of its three-match limited-overs international series against Sri Lanka. Marsh injured his back in Wednesday's series opener against Sri Lanka at Melbourne. Ferguson has been given the chance to revive his international career. He showed form with a rapid century for South Australia against Western Australia in a Sheffield Shield match earlier this week. “It's an unfortunate injury for Shaun,” chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said in a news release. “However, it does create another opportunity for Callum Ferguson to come back into the Australian one-day team and press his claims.”
