DPA

SYDNEY - Australian cricket fans were left scratching their heads Monday after their side’s Ashes loss dislodged them from the top position in the Test rankings.

Australian team is now at the fourth position behind South Africa, Sri Lanka and India.

Needing just a draw from the final game in the best-of-five series, the visitors lost by 197 runs to surrender the precious Ashes trophy to England.

Ricky Ponting, the first Australian in 100 years to captain two losing Ashes tours, joined the faithful in bemusement on handing back the coveted Old Urn trophy just like he did four years ago.

“England have won some really crucial moments during the series,” he said at the the Oval. “You look through all the stats and you don’t know how it turned out like it has.”

Ponting, run out at the Oval while on 66 by retiring England hero Andrew Flintoff, admitted that a second failure in England might cost him his captaincy.

“I’ve got all that waiting for me when I get back to Australia,” he said. “That’s all part and parcel of being captain.”

But Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland exonerated Ponting, saying his position was safe despite his failure to shine with the bat and as a captain.

“Ricky’s had a very, very good series,” Sutherland said. “He’s been under incredible pressure (and) I thought the dignity and poise that he showed in defeat was something that all Australians should be very proud of.”

For the record, the statistics were in the visitors’ favour. Australia scored eight 100s and the English only two, and the bowler with the best figures was again an Australian.

Even diehard English fans have not demurred at the notion that only captain Andrew Strauss would be assured of a place in a team made up of players from both sides.

Australia, the team with the best players, lost to an English side without its injury-sidelined star batsman Kevin Pietersen.

Because a draw was all that was needed in the final match, Australian fans fully expected to win the series. Newspaper headlines trumpeted a side “Poised for Ashes triumph.”

But Ponting’s team managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory after a batting collapse in the first innings.

Former captain Ian Chappell is calling for scalps - but not the petulant and unloved Ponting’s. Chappell, writing in London’s The Times, wants the selectors sacked.

“Not only did they handcuff Ponting at the Oval with four pacemen on a palpably dry pitch, but they also, once again, resorted to the failed ploy of expecting part-time spinners to do a specialist task,” he wrote. “This is a crime punishable by demotion.”

But Sutherland said selectors, like Ponting, should not be held to account.

“I don’t think in any way we can hold the selectors accountable for us losing the Ashes,” he said.

“It was only six or seven months ago that we had a fantastic series in South Africa where we beat the number one team in the world with a pretty similar line-up and the selectors were hailed for their selection and in some way the perceived risks that they took in backing young