Australian skipper Tim Paine dropped as many as three chances at crucial phases of the game on day 5 to help India in their quest to draw the Test match. He dropped Rishabh Pant twice and Hanuma Vihari once during the game. The Australian bowlers were desperate on the final day and Paine’s missed chances added insult to injury for the Australian team.
In the post-match presser, Tim Paine spoke about the missed chances and said that he let his bowlers down in the final day’s play.
“I’m bitterly disappointed, I pride myself on my wicketkeeping. Haven’t had too many worse days than today, it’s a horrible feeling knowing our fast bowlers and our spinner bowled their hearts out and gave everything to the team. I certainly feel I let them down. I have to wear that, but I’ll get another crack at it next week so move on,” Paine said after the game.
Tim Paine further pointed out the positives from the drawn SCG Test match and lauded India for the way they played on the final day.
Created Enough Chances To Win: Tim Paine
“We created enough chances to win, wouldn’t say it’s deflating. Though there were a lot of positives out of the game and it was an awesome game of Test cricket. India fought bloody hard like we knew they would, clearly we are disappointed not to get a win but thought there were some good signs for us after the Melbourne Test.”
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Paine was also penalised for showing dissent at an umpire’s decision for his misuse of words in the day’s play. He was handed a demerit point and fined 15 percent of his match fee as well.
Unfortunately, I probably set a pretty poor example with my use of language. I need to be better than that. I know the stump mics are on and there’s a lot of kids watching and I need to set a better example. We try our best but we aren’t perfect. Occasionally if the worst thing we’ve done is let the odd f-bomb go then I think we are going okay,” said Paine.
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