After another long hectic day in the ongoing Sydney Test, the Australian Test skipper Tim Paine lightened the media interaction moment by picking up an incoming call in the middle of that interaction.
On day two of the Sydney Test, India declared their first innings on 622/7. At the stumps of day two, Australia was batting on 24/0.
After the day’s play, when the Aussie Test skipper Tim Paine was busy in the media interaction, an incoming call on his phone interrupted. However, Paine’s reaction and replies after picking up that call made the situation hilarious and light-hearted.
Paine told on his phone, “Tim Paine speaking. Who is it sorry? Oh okay, who are you after? Casey in Hong Kong! Oh Martin! Oh alright, he’s in the middle of a press conference. Can I get him to call you back? Alright.. no worries, I’ll ask him to check his emails. Alright! Thanks Casey, cheers!”
A cheeky phone call derailed Tim Paine's press conference after play! 🤣🤣 #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/zMT1cT8IOd
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 4, 2019
Later, in that media interaction, Paine told about his goals, one of which is to regain their top position in the Test cricket.
Paine said, “One of my goals, every time we play Test cricket for Australia we want to win and clearly we want to move up the rankings. A lot of my goals were around the way we went about it and getting the trust and respect back from our fans.”
On the day two morning, the Australian bowling coach David Saker revealed that there was some confusion between the Aussie Test skipper and the bowlers on the day one of the ongoing Sydney Test.
Saker told ABC, “The bowlers wanted one thing. Tim wanted one thing. That’s not been the case as the general rule but when you were watching from the sideline, you could see there was some confusion.”
However, at the end of day two, the Aussie Test skipper Paine has ensured that the team is united in any kind of situation.
He said, “We always have a discussion post-game but in terms of being on a different page, no. I think we’re pretty clear on what we’re trying to do.
“Yesterday afternoon – and to be fair probably the first hour in the morning then the first hour after lunch (on Friday) – we got it slightly wrong.
“It can sometimes look like that but we know what we’re trying to do. Sometimes you don’t quite execute and teams can get away from you and that’s what happened.”
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The Indian Test specialist batsman Cheteshwar Pujara played a brilliant patience knock of 193 runs off 373 balls (22 fours) that led the visiting side for a good first innings total. Speaking about Pujara’s batting, Paine claimed that it is hard to dismiss him when the ball doesn’t swing.
Paine said, “With Pujara in particular, if you’re not swinging the ball, he’s extremely hard to get out. We’ve tried lots of different things. He’s faced about a million balls this series. We’ve tried wide of the stumps, at the stumps, Nathan Lyon’s been over and around [the wicket]. I don’t think there’s too many things we haven’t tried and he’s been too good for us.”
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After winning the second Test of the series at the new Perth Stadium (Optus Stadium) and levelling the ongoing series, struggling Australia got a new hope in cricket but they have failed to maintain the same thing in the last two Tests of the series. However, Paine is still hopeful about their changing fate in quick time.
He added, “We haven’t been at our best in the last two Test matches, but cricket is a funny game and it can turn really quickly if you keep working hard and keep helping your team-mates. We’ve got to keep doing that, keep sticking together. The easy thing to do is to throw in the towel. We certainly won’t be doing that.”
Rishabh Pant’s brilliant big century has hit hugely on Australia’s confidence level. The young wicketkeeper-batsman remained unbeaten on 159 off 189 balls (15 fours and only six)
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Talking about Pant’s knock, Paine told SEN after the day two, “It’s certainly difficult, they were batting superbly. Rishabh Pant’s extremely difficult to bowl to when he gets going. It wasn’t our best day, that’s for sure, it hasn’t been our best couple of days to be fair with the ball, but you can’t fault the guys’ effort, they were trying as hard as they could, you just have those days sometimes.”
