Ricky Ponting lamented Australia's error-strewn display that saw them crash out of the ICC World T20 at the earliest opportunity.

Australia's six-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge leaves much of the squad an unwanted two-week void to fill before their Ashes tour proper begins.

Sri Lanka knock Australia out

The 50-over world champions succumbed to their opponents with a Mitchell Johnson wide, typifying undisciplined bowling which included five other wides and two no balls.

"The attitude around the group was great coming into the tournament, and we had some very good form in the warm-up matches," the Australia skipper said.

"But the way we've played in the last two games, we've made way too many mistakes. You just can't afford to do that against good teams. We had a good partnership going early on today. But we lost one wicket, then another on top of that.

"The spinners were able to come on and dictate to us, because we lost wickets in a row.

"We did a reasonable job to get to 160, I thought. But then once again with the ball, there were too many extras.

Watch the match between Australia and Sri Lanka 

"When you're making mistakes with the ball to good players, they'll make you pay. It has been our mistakes that have let us down in this tournament."

Australia have now lost their last five Twenty20 internationals, Monday's defeat coming on the back of Saturday's drubbing by West Indies.

Sri Lanka's mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis played a crucial role with three for 20 in four overs to restrict Australia to 159 for nine.

Ponting was quick to praise the 24-year-old who was bowling against Australia for the first time.

"He is a unique kind of bowler," he added. "But in a Twenty20 game, you have to take the challenge up to the bowlers. Today, he got the better of us.

SX4 Super Selector

"We knew their spinners would be the most difficult for us to face, and he's certainly had a big impact on the game.

"It was probably the biggest difference in the game, the fact that their spinners did dictate to us through the middle of our innings.

"A lot of their guys have been playing Twenty20 over last few months, but we've had a few guys at the IPL as well.

"It's irrelevant really. We knew what we had to do and unfortunately, in the last two games, we haven't been good enough to do it."

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara, whose unbeaten 55 saw his side home, differed on the importance of the Indian Premier League.

"It's been a wonderful experience for everybody. We have about 13 Sri Lankan players in the IPL, a few more going in next year hopefully," he said.

Click here for cricket alerts

"Even if some of the players don't get consistent games the fact that they are there, they are rubbing shoulders with some of the greats of the game, they're learning from that experience, they're training hard, they're learning to innovate.

"And it keeps them on their toes to see how much they have to improve and really perform to be recognised in world cricket and I think that will drive our cricketers forward and upwards."

Sangakkara also singled out Mendis, who played for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, for special praise.

"I think it was magnificent, a spin bowler coming on and bowling 20 runs for three wickets, you can't ask for more than that in Twenty20 cricket.

"The Aussies have never seen him before and he made the impact that was expected of him. It's great to see him bowl, it's great to have him in our side and hopefully he'll get better."

Sangakkara divulged Sri Lanka had done their homework on English conditions, identifying spin as a potent weapon.

"If you take statistics in England, the more successful bowlers have been have been the slow, spin bowlers in Twenty20 cricket and Nottingham, it's a good batting wicket," he added, drawing on Muttiah Muralitharan's 11-wicket haul at the same ground in a Test against England.

"We played a Test match in 2006 here. It offered us much more turn than we expected and even more turn than we had back home.

"So I think the less pace there is on the ball - the boundaries are quite big as well - the batsmen have to do a lot of work and when you have quality spinners the job becomes harder so I think it's a good slow time for the bowlers to make an impact."