Ashes 2019 | Carrying momentum irrelevant ahead of 3rd Test, says Tim Paine
After a fierce battle at Lord’s that saw no winners, Tim Paine has suggested that the momentum that England carries into the third Test at Headingley matters too much. However, Paine expressed hopes that his openers David Warner and Cameron Bancroft can finally find some runs at Leeds.
After setting Australia a near-impossible 267 to win in 48 overs on the last day, England nearly managed to trigger a late batting collapse to win the day and level the series. Australia slipped from 130 for three to 149 for six, but Travis Head and Pat Cummins managed to see through the remaining overs without further trouble. It was Paine's dismissal to a sublime one-handed catch by Joe Denly in the final half-hour of play that gave England a brief glimpse at an improbable win. The two teams will be back in action in four days' time at Headingley, and despite a drawn result, it will be the hosts that carry an extra zest over from the Lord’s Test. However, Paine disagreed with it.
"I don't think it matters, we go to Headingley next week and we knew coming here the five-Test series would be tough and there is a reason an Australian team hasn't won over here for 18 years. Having said that if you would have said we have we are 1-0 up after two Tests we would have taken that every day of the week," Paine said at the post-match press conference, reported Cricbuzz.
"You don't have a lot of time to think. Sometimes you get it wrong. I was thinking about ducking under it, but 150 can make you do different things. I just didn't hit it where I would have liked to have hit it. I am not going to overthink it. I am going to keep playing (the way) I want to play," he said.
Once again, though, it was the Australian openers that struggled to give Australia a steady start. Warner is yet to register a double-digit score in the series, falling to a delivery from around the wicket all four times. Only this time, it was Jofra Archer that claimed his wicket, and not Stuart Broad. In Bancroft’s defence, he has survived quite a lot of balls in the middle but has never once looked confident in his stride.Â
"I think if you look at top-order batting across the two teams it shows you it's probably a pretty difficult place to be batting on either side. Yes, those guys would like more runs. We know how good David is, he's got 7000 Test runs at 50 and Cameron Bancroft I thought in this game looked pretty good, faced a lot of balls... probably would've liked to have scored a few more runs but I thought he acquitted himself pretty well again against some pretty high-quality bowling," he said.
Walking in at No.4 in place of Steve Smith as the first concussion substitute in the history of the game, Marnus Labuschagne did a Smith and saved the day for his team with a hard-fought half-century.Â
"Marnus came in today and batted as well as anyone in the Test match in I think the hardest conditions of the Test match. It was dark, it was spinning, it was fast and moving around a bit. I thought handled it as well as anyone in the whole Test. He got hit hard in the face second ball and I thought he showed great character great skill and technique," Paine added.
