Cricket news: Fury over Steve Smith 'insult' as Aussies on brink of World Cup elimination

Mark Waugh has described it as an 'insult' that Steve Smith was once again kept on the sidelines as Australia lost to Sri Lanka at the T20 World Cup on Monday night to put them on the brink of elimination. Smith was added to Australia's 15-player squad on the eve of the game, and it looked like he was in line to play against Sri Lanka.

But selectors again opted to leave him out, and it backfired in a big way. The Aussies lost by eight wickets as Pathum Nissanka scored a brilliant 52-ball century to guide Sri Lanka home with two overs to spare.

Australia made 181 while batting first, with the returning Mitch Marsh whacking 54 off 27 and Travis Head 56 off 29. The openers reached 104 without loss, but the Aussies then lost all 10 wickets for just 77 in 70 balls.

Cameron Green (3), Tim David (6), Marcus Stoinis (4) and Cooper Connolly (3) all failed to fire after being selected ahead of Smith. Selectors only view Smith as an opener in the T20 format, and with Marsh fit to play alongside Head it meant there was no room for Smith.

But the failure of Australia's middle order showed Smith could easily have done a job there, however he was forced to watch on from the sidelines once again. Smith got on the field as a substitute, but his batting was severely missed.

The horror collapse opener the door for Sri Lanka to pounce, and Nissanka took full advantage. An Aussie bowling attack missing Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood was once again exposed as Nissanka made 100 not out off 52 balls, while Kusal Mendis made 51 off 38 as Sri Lanka chased down the target with eight wickets in hand and two overs to spare.

Australia on cusp of elimination from T20 World Cup

The result puts Sri Lanka into the Super 8 stage and Australia on the brink of being eliminated. If Zimbabwe beat Ireland on Tuesday night, Australia will be out of the World Cup. If Ireland beat Zimbabwe, Australia would need to beat Oman comfortably and hope Zimbabwe lose to Sri Lanka on Thursday.

"We are in the lap of the Gods now," Marsh said after the loss. "We will watch the Zimbabwe-Ireland game with hope, but it is a devastated group. There's a lot of emotions in the room. We have not been at our best.

"Sri Lanka outplayed us. We know at our best we can make big scores. We just lost our way towards the back end. Could not get a partnership going and they bowled really well. Coming off we knew we were a bit short with the start we had."

Steve Smith 'insult' leaves Mark Waugh fuming

Questions are once again being asked as to why Smith has been ignored. Veteran broadcaster Andrew 'Menners' Menczel wrote online: "What a joke Cooper Connolly and Cameron Green picked over Steve Smith in the XI vs Sri Lanka."

Speaking on SEN radio, Waugh said: "The selectors have their plans in place, but you've got to be smart enough to see which players are in form and which players are out of form, and you've got to play the percentages a lot better than what our selectors have played at the moment. It's just been baffling some of the selections, and injuries haven't helped obviously.

"I just think they've got the selections completely wrong and to have your best player by 100 yards sitting on the sideline in Steve Smith…I think it's an insult to Steve Smith, to be honest."

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