Johannesburg, Sept. 29: In a year they have lost the Ashes and been eliminated in the first round of the T20 Worlds, Ricky Ponting is not a happy man. On Monday, he had the mortification of seeing a chance to beat India outright with the washed out result at Centurion, and may well make an early exit here too if they lose to Pakistan on Wednesday.

Australia put on 234/4 in 42.3 overs before a massive downpour washed out all chances of a result in their key Group A game against India. Ponting knows they have to win to advance, eliminating India in the process.

"We were disappointed the game did not finish. We were in a strong position and with wickets in hand and a good few overs to go I thought we would have made it to 300. That would have been a very competitive total but it wasn't to be in the end with the rain," Ponting said here on Tuesday.

"A positive was that we got in some good time against some quality spinners. Our batsmen played well so that's really good going into the Pakistan match, where there will surely be two spinners playing.

"Hussey and Paine played the spinners very well against India and that augers well for the upcoming match. Ajmal and Afridi are quality spinners. Yes they did well against us in Abu Dhabi and Dubai but we are up for it," he added.

More rain is forecast for Wednesday over Centurion, and if the match does get washed out, it sends Australia through along with Pakistan as India can only get a maximum of three points to Australia's four in the event of another called-off game.

"We are in a good position. A lot of our players are in good form and we want to play the game. We can't control the weather but we are going to prepare for the match to the best of our ability," Ponting said.