Paine: The hardest day’s cricket I’ve ever had in my life

Cricket365
June 20, 2018

Australia captain Tim Paine said the record-breaking defeat in the third ODI against England at Trent Bridge on Tuesday was the “hardest day’s cricket I’ve ever had in my life”.

After Paine had won the toss and elected to field, England smashed the highest ever ODI total of 481/6 and then bowled the tourists out for just 239 in 37 overs.

The victory margin of 242 runs was Australia’s heaviest loss in ODI cricket and also England’s biggest win in the 50-over format.

REPORT: England hit highest ever ODI total to flatten Australia

Paine said after the game: “It was tough. I thought I had some headaches last game after about the 25th over when I got hit in the head but I had a few more out there today to be honest .

“I’ve just said in the changing rooms, I’ve been playing cricket since I was a kid and that’s the hardest day’s cricket I’ve ever had in my life.

“Everything we tried didn’t work and everything they tried came off. Normally that happens for an hour or two and you get a couple of wickets but it happened for as long as it did.

“You’ve got to take your hat off. They struck the ball as well as I’ve ever seen.”

Asked if the decision to bowl first on a flat batting surface was the wrong, Paine instead chose to give credit to the home side’s batsmen.

The Aussie wicketkeeper added: “I don’t think the conditions or the wicket or what we did first had anything to do with that result.

“We just ran into some guys that are absolutely red hot at the moment and yeah they put us to the sword a bit but certainly, from batting or bowling second, the wicket was still terrific when we batted on it as well. We just didn’t execute so well with either.”

England now have an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series and with the next game in Durham on Friday, Paine said they would continue to experiment with the starting line-up.

Paine concluded: “The best place for these guys to learn is on the job. So as bad as it feels right now this can be a big positive for us going forward that we’ve gone through a day like this and the guys realise that the sun comes up tomorrow and we get another crack at it in two days’ time.”