Australian Test captain Tim Paine has revealed that losing out the spot in the WTC final due to slow over-rate was “bitter pill to swallow”.
“I didn’t watch too much of it. I watched the last day. I turned it on excited to watch the first day. I thought I was excited, and then got a bit dirty and didn’t watch it,” Paine was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald on Monday.
The 36-year-old had no qualms about hiding his disappointment. “Bitterly disappointed that we weren’t there because of over rates. We’ve always got things in place to try to help out with that, but unfortunately it doesn’t always work.”
But he spoke about his issue with consistency in docking points. “We were behind on our overs, and that’s what it is. My thing is just with the consistency. I haven’t played in too many days where the full overs have been bowled, and to my knowledge there hasn’t been other teams docked points.
“Yeah, it’s a bitter pill to swallow when you’re the only team that’s been docked points and you see it happen Test match after Test match, after Test match.”
Australia’s first series in the second World Test Championship will begin against England in Brisbane.