12 October - Lucknow - Australia player Marnus Labuschagne post-match press conference

[Reporter:]

How do you sum up that result?

[Marnus Labuschagne:]

Yeah, it’s a tough one to swallow. Haven't really had too much time to digest it all because obviously got out there at the end. It certainly felt like conditions were nipping around. It was quite steep bounce out there. And we probably saw right at the back end there the dew really came in and it probably played a part but we didn't have any batters left - so yeah in summation just lost too many wickets early.

[Reporter:]

What was sort of the umpires explaining to you and Marcus [Stoinis] after that decision was ruled ‘out’ with the caught behind?

[Marnus Labuschagne:]

Look, the umpires really didn't know what was going on. They just saw what we saw, so it wasn't really too much going on. I mean, for me, it looked like, and I was on field, I can't see, but it looked like his hand was off the bat, it hit the glove. And so, because they didn't go to the side-on angle, Marcus and I were just asking, have they checked? Because they just saw the spike from the front on, and they didn't sort of get a close-up zoom in of the side. Well, sorry, not one that we had. And that just looked like there was clear daylight between the two gloves and the handle. But once again, I have been into the third umpire room and the screens are big and everything's much clearer than me standing in the middle looking at a pretty pixelated screen.

[Reporter:]

Rabada and Ngidi looked like a particular handful tonight. What did they do so well and why were they so effective tonight?

[Marnus Labuschagne:]

The conditions. One, they bowled a nice length, a length that was tough for scoring. And yeah, the ball just sort of did the talking for them. They just bolted through - the ball was swinging; the ball was seaming. I'm not sure what the numbers were for that, but it certainly felt like it was doing more tonight than it did in the afternoon for us.

[Reporter:]

With the Steve Smith dismissal as well, when the camera was zoomed onto your face and you looked more shocked than anyone else, like, just what was your take on that? Steve took quite a long time to leave as well after that.

[Marnus Labuschagne:]

I mean, I see what everyone else sees on the screen there. I was looking at the screen and I actually said to Joel, good decision. Cause from front on it just looked like it was going down leg straight away. And Steve was like, ‘what do you think?’ I was like, ‘nah, I don't even think it's close’. I felt like the angle was pushing down leg and he usually plays that sort of shot where he leaves his leg out, he doesn't cross over like most normal batters, he leaves his leg out of the way so his leg is always - maybe it's hit him on leg stump and then drifting down - but for the ball I mean I haven't seen the final footage but it looked like it must have hit him on leg and then almost straightened onto the stumps. Yeah, it just wasn't what it felt like out there but once again I can't argue with technology or not right now.

[Reporter:]

Yeah, we'll wait for it. Just a lot of dropped catches and the fielding was a little sloppy, Marnus. There's already talk that maybe you guys have played too much cricket leading into this World Cup, or can you just sum it up like what was going on out there?

[Marnus Labuschagne:]

I can't speak for each individual on how much cricket we've played. We certainly have played a lot but I'm not here to sit and make excuses. We're playing the World Cup for Australia. We have to be ready; we have to be better than that. It's hard to put your finger on it. I mean, we're one of the best fielding sides in the world - we pride ourselves on that and, you know, we just didn't seem to get it right today. We created opportunities and just didn't take them and yeah, it just wasn't a great performance from us. But we have to bounce back and get this train rolling.

[Reporter:]

When you went into the rooms there, after you went out, what was the mood like, given the nature of such a heavy defeat?

[Marnus Labuschagne:]

I wasn't really taking too much notice of the mood. I was fuming that I got out. Yeah, I mean people are down but we also know we got a job right? Like yeah, we can be disappointed about this performance, we can be disappointed about lots of things, how we played, but the reality is you can't sit and sulk in the changing room. We've got to take action and we've got to get our tournament underway and in three days' time we've got Sri Lanka here and I don't know how, this is my first World Cup, but I don't know how the points system works but we're going to need to win every game from here I assume or at least very, very close to get into that four. But once again, it's the reason Australia has won the World Cup I think five times, is because we play well under pressure and we haven't started well, but this is the beginning not the end.

[Reporter:]

Does it shake your confidence at all that the team has what it takes to compete against these top sides?

[Marnus Labuschagne:]

Well, I'd consider us one of the top sides and it's disappointing that we haven't competed in the last two games. But we've just got to make sure we're learning from these scenarios. I mean, we face probably two polar opposite extremes, heavy spin conditions against probably three of the best, well, two of the best spinners India's probably ever produced and then probably one of the best white ball spinners and then here against the seaming swinging ball against a team that's also very good in those conditions. So, we've got to get better and we've got to make sure that we come back stronger for the next fixture.

[Reporter:]

Back to the Marcus [Stoinis] dismissal, it looked like there was quite a bit of chat with the South Africans on the field at the time as well. Were they also a bit surprised and maybe didn't know what was going on? What was the reaction there?

[Marnus Labuschagne:]

I think people would have seen - everyone saw the same thing out there. I'm not sure what they were thinking. I think there was some talk, maybe it hit the handle of the bat, or I don't know what they were saying. But yeah, it was certainly confusing and I'm sure we'll get clarity or we’re going to seek for clarity because it's a World Cup and we don't want small decisions that can be avoided to change the outcomes of games. Obviously in the situation we're in it's hard to say that it was going to change the outcome but for the future you certainly want to make sure we get them right.