The wicket at the Wankhede stadium came under heavy criticism from Australia captain Ricky Ponting after his side lost the fourth Test to India by 13 runs on Friday.

"I think it [the wicket] was nowhere near Test match standard. It was pretty obvious when 40 wickets fell in just two days, which is pretty much unheard of. It is disappointing that it has ended this way. It puts a sour taste in the mouth and it is hard on the spectators and on you guys to report on a game like that," he said.

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"I know lots of questions will be asked and match reports on this wicket will be sent to the ICC [International Cricket Council]. As a player you want to be tested in different conditions but this is going a bit too far. We played in three other venues where the conditions were different in all the matches and, apart from Nagpur, all of them were going into the fifth day."

Ponting though agreed that the wicket was not an excuse for his side's collapse in the second innings.

"We knew it [the target] was achievable but at the same time we knew it would be very hard. We had to get some partnerships going but, unfortunately, that didn't happen. The first 15-20 minutes were very difficult but none of us got past that. We gave ourselves a chance to chase; 107 in any conditions you should be able to achieve. We were not good enough today and India put us under pressure.

"You can't say anything to any batsman who played on that wicket. It was all about calculated risks and you hope they come off, but it didn't come off for any batsman."

Ponting said even though Australia won the series, losing the last Test "hurt" and it was a personal disappointment as he couldn't get his record straight in India.

"It was a disappointing return for me, missing out on a huge part of history was disappointing I was hoping to get a five-day Test match and make some runs; play the same brand of cricket that we had throughout the series. But we didn't win the Test match and I didn't make any runs. It was a disappointing way to end the series.

"We tried extremely hard and came up just 14 runs short. I guess the look on our faces, even after the presentation, showed that this game meant a lot to us like every game does. Full credit to our guys for the way they played till the last ball."

He added that losing Shane Warne to injury for the Test was a big blow to the side, especially since India exploited the track fully with three very good spinners.

He said it would have been interesting to have Warne bowl on a wicket that afforded so much turn since he spins the ball a long way even on wickets that are not very helpful.

Summing up the series, he said the difference between the two sides was that India did some things well but didn't do them for long enough, while Australia was consistent and able to put enormous pressure on their opponents.