Ponting hits out at team for 'coming up a long way short'

Ricky Ponting was disappointed with Australia's failure to build on 110 for two in the fourth one-day international against South Africa

Australia's captain Ricky Ponting has admitted his side had "come up a long way short" in their eight-wicket defeat to South Africa in Adelaide on Monday and told his players "they must turn things around quickly".

A tight Commonwealth Bank Series was blown apart on Monday with the Proteas bowling the hosts out for 222 and then cruising to victory with 11.5 overs to spare. It has been a disappointing season for the Australians and, although Ponting felt the team had been competitive in the first three games of the series, he said of the defeat: "An eight-wicket loss with 12 overs to go is a big loss in a one-day game. We've come up a long way short on this occasion.

"We've obviously been comprehensively beaten. Once again with our batting we got ourselves into a reasonable position – 110 for two and a few overs later we are 130 for five – and that's been the tale right through this series to date.

"Five overs cost us. From once again getting up near 280 to 300, to struggle to 220 as you saw on a very, very good batting wicket and a very fast outfield. That total was never ever going to be enough if they played well and we didn't take wickets with the new ball."

Australia will now head to Perth to salvage some pride in the final game of the one-day series on Friday and Ponting is hopeful the team can build some confidence and some momentum in preparation for the one-day fixtures against New Zealand.

Australia will also be keen out to hold onto their No1 ranking: if South Africa win the final ODI then they will move to the top of the rankings. "We are going to need to play better than we have over the last couple of weeks if we want to turn our cricket around and we need to do it pretty quickly," added Ponting.

Meanwhile, the all-rounder Andrew Symonds will face a Cricket Australia Code of Conduct hearing over comments made about New Zealand's Brendon McCullum. Symonds told a radio programme he thought McCullum was a "lump of shit" following the Kiwi wicketkeeper-batsman's decision to play for New South Wales in the final of the KFC Big Bash on Saturday.

Cricket Australia has placed Symonds on report for a breach of Code of Behaviour provisions relating to detrimental public comment. "Given the importance of the tribunal hearing, it would be inappropriate to comment on the issue now a report has been made," the acting CA chief executive, Michael Brown, said. "Once the outcome of this hearing is finalised, CA will be in a better position to assess issues relating to Andrew Symonds."

Any suspension would delay Symonds' comeback from injury in the upcoming Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia, which starts on Friday. It would also cast a doubt on his future with the national team given he was suspended for going fishing instead of attending a team meeting in Darwin last year.

Symonds has a long list of disciplinary issues, most notably on the 2005 tour of England where he was dropped before a one-day international against Bangladesh for turning up in an unfit state.