Section:GDN 1N PaGe:51 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 21:04 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Friday 6 September 2019 The Guardian •Sport^51
Cricket Fourth Specsavers Ashes TestPaine does
not need
to be peeling
off tons to be
worth his salt
Stitching together faltering
innings and supporting his
top batsmen makes Australia
captain a valuable assetGeoff Lemon
Old Traff ordW
hen your Ashes
tour around
England extends
from days
into months,
you start to
read the local consensus. Pub
talk, pundit talk and player talk
overlap, sometimes divergent
and sometimes repeated. When
this year’s subject has been Steve
Smith there has been a general
despondency; for Australia’s fast
bowlers a general disquiet ; for the
wicketkeeping captain, Tim Paine,
more often a general disdain.
Perhaps this was given an early
boost when a Birmingham reporter
asked Paine whether Edgbaston
was the most intimidating venue
in cricket. Paine’s brush-off was
received as an insult, as though a
cherished source of national pride
was to believe that a hundred drunk
idiots dressed as watermelons
should strike fear into the sporting
heart; as though the Hollies Stand
was some modern battlefi eld where
the distant strains of the “Don’t
Take Me Home” beer song came
from the mouths of an advancing
army, washing over the parapets
and making the mud tremble.
Then there is the perceived
risibility of an Australia captain
talking about things like decency
and respect which, given the history,
is not entirely unreasonable. A lot
more walk will need to be walked
before talk is given weight.
Whatever the factors feeding
into this discontent, it manifests in
Paine being needled as a cricketer:
fi rst with the portrayal of him as
an accidental captain, then as an
insuffi cient player. The contention
is that his place in the side is assured
only because there is no suitable
alternative as captain since the
Cape Town debacle of 2018.
England’s players have taken up
this line, getting stuck into Paine
while he bats about not being good
enough to play at international
level. It is a bit of an irony given the
Test claims of some of England’s
batsmen are written on rice paper
but it has led to prickly exchanges
on the fi eld, most notably between
Paine and England’s huddle as hewalked off during the third Test at
Headingley.
A certain amount of the same
disregard emanates from home
shores too, with cricket followers
questioning his ability with the bat.
Returns of 5, 34, 23, 4, 11 and 0 from
the fi rst three Ashes Tests were
meagre enough to amplify this.
How much more, then, he would
have enjoyed his innings of 58 in
the fourth match at Old Traff ord.
It was the ideal Paine innings:
digging in for a long stay, quietly
assembling a total but more
importantly supporting Smith as
his premier batsman built towards
a double century. There was an
early dropped catch but luck has
otherwise been against him. When
he came to the crease, the team’s 224
could still have slumped; when he
left at 369 it was safe.
Much is made of Paine’s
fi rst-class record, most notably
the lone century all the way backin 2006. English press colleagues
have enjoyed bons mots about his
last hundred coming before the
invention of the iPhone. The Paine
of those young years was a stylish
batsman who was expected to make
big runs. The later model with his
rebuilt fi ngers does a diff erent job:
stitching together innings that
are in trouble, working with the
lower order, putting together some
impressively brave innings since his
Test recall in late 2017.
Australia cricket followers were
spoiled by Adam Gilchrist, who was
on another statistical planet with
his 17 Test centuries and an average
that for most of his career topped- Since then every wicketkeeper is
expected to match the best batsmen
and plenty of batsmen around
the world have been pushed into
keeping wicket.
But look at the history and that
is not how it works. Put Gilchrist
aside and the next best average for
an Australia wicketkeeper is Brad
Haddin’s 32.98. Paine sits one run
behind him. They are the only two
to average more than 30. For a long
time keepers did not even average
more than 20. Ian Healy and Rod
Marsh may have combined for
seven centuries but they took 215
Tests to do so, while both averag ed
less than 28. Those fi ve plus the
Bradman-era Bert Oldfi eld are the
only Australia keepers to make
more than a thousand runs.
Statistically then, Paine has one of
the best batting records for Australia
in the role. The idea that he needs
to be peeling off tons to be worth
a place in the side is fantasy. Such
players are extremely rare, in any
team.
There was plenty of excitement
about Alex Carey’s work in the
World Cup but the idea he could just
come in and replicate that in Test
cricket should be given pause by
Jason Roy’s struggles in this series
for England.
At Old Traff ord Paine stayed
marooned on 49 for half an hour,
mostly because he got little of the
strike and did not want to squander
it when it came along. He allowed
Smith to drain England, after which
Mitchell Starc would come in and
batter them.
Paine’s 58 did not become a
hundred. Craig Overton moved
a ball away and took his edge
immediately after tea. B y then it did
n ot matter. He had done enough.was made. It gave me time to recover
and I felt good. I was confi dent and
have got us into a nice position.”
On returning to the middle after the
blow sustained from an Archer short
ball at Lord’s, Smith said: “I faced a lot
of short-pitched bowling and haven’t
had too many issues. The opposition
bowling there means they can’t hit my
pad or nick me off. It softens up the
ball too and that plays into my hands.”
When Smith brought up his third
Ashes double -century after tea,
tucking the 310th delivery he had
faced round the corner off Stuart Broad
for a couple of runs, England’s weary
cricketers could only applaud the bat-
ting on show and think back to missed
opportunities.
Archer, who ended up with his
career-worst first-class figures of
none for 97 from 27 overs, had seen a
tough return catch off Smith fl y past
his fi ngertips in the morning.
But the most galling came at the
start of the wicketless afternoon ses-
sion when Smith edged to Ben Stokes
at slip only for replays to show Leach
had overstepped. The spinner has sent
down more than 15,000 deli veries in
his fi rst-class career – this was only the
eighth no-ball along the way.
Smith said: “I had some luck, yeah.
You always need some when you score
big runs. It fell my way today. I was in
a hurry for 20 minutes [after lunch]
and after being caught off the no-ball
I switched myself back on. When I saw
the foot over the li ne I thought ‘how
good is this? I get to carry on batting.’”
Two more chances slipped through
English fi ngers – Jason Roy and the
substitute Sam Curran gave Tim
Paine lives on nine and 49 en route to a
half-century – while Jonny Bairstow let
slip some frustration about the pitch.
Bairstow said: “To come here from
Headingley, where it seamed a bit
and did a bit in the fi rst few days, and
there be a lot less live grass on it was
interesting.
“There’s no point talking about the
wicket, that’s gone now. We’re playing
on the pitch and we’re into day three.
No point complaining about that,
we’ve got a job to do these next three
days. I’m sure those conversations will
be had later down the line.”
A troubling day was compounded
by Stokes pulling up injured with
a shoulder problem during his 11th
over. England say it is too early to
know whether he will bowl again in
the match. The all-rounder returned
after a spell off the fi eld.‘I thought how
good is this? I
get to carry
on batting’
▲ Jofra Archer reacts after missing
an early chance to catch Steve Smith Continued from back pageHe allowed Smith
to drain England
after which Starc
would come in
and batter them
Tim Paine has
one of the best
batting records
for Australia
wicketkeepers
ANTHONY DEVLIN/
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