India grabbed the key moments while Australia slipped when it needed to move ahead, skipper Tim Paine said while assessing the outcome of the fourth Test and also expressed his desire to continue in the leadership role until he settles some “unfinished business”.
India’s youngster performed when it mattered, never letting pressure get to them. Instead they were bullish and led the side to a remarkable three-wicket win.
“Whether it was with bat, ball or field, every time we had a chance to go ahead in the game, we let it slip. (It) happened little bit in Sydney with our fielding and then probably yesterday with our batting,” Paine said at the virtual post-match press conference, facilitated by official broadcasters Sony Networks.
“We lost wickets when we tried to put foot down and couldn’t quite get a partnership together. And I thought every-time India needed to (do) that, needed a wicket, somehow managed to do it, so again you got just to give them credit, they won the key moments,” said the 36-year-old. There could be question marks over his leadership but Paine does not want to quit the role as yet.
“I had an ordinary day in Sydney. As a sportsman you have more bad days than good days, batting and wicket-keeping are pretty similar like that and it doesn’t always go your way in cricket and in life.
“I still feel like (I) want to get better, certainly keep leading this team, as I said we have got some unfinished business, something that we set out to achieve as a group, so I intend to finish that,” the Australian skipper said.
“…and we turned to Sydney on day five and the Gabba on day five in as good as position as you want to be, I reckon, and could not get the job done. There are some things we could have done better, at the same time, India were (as a) batting group amazing on both those day fives,” he added.
Paine said they had their chances to win the series and the fourth Test but could not capitalise on them.
“We walked away from Adelaide with everyone saying we are awesome and we were pretty ordinary for most of that Test match except an hour. We have the last two Test matches we copped up (for) being awful.
“We walk (ed) into day five for both those Test matches at great positions and did a lot of good things. We have been outplayed, we had our chances to win this series, to win this Test match and we didn’t take them,” admitted Paine, who had a horrendous time with the gloves.