Australia captain Tim Paine wasn't at his best behind the stumps against India in the third Test at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). He dropped three catches on the decisive fifth day of the match which India managed to draw after a tough contest.
Pakistan's veteran wicket-keeper Kamran Akmal feels Australia could have won the match had Paine grabbed the catches. He dropped Rishabh Pant twice early into his innings and Hanuma Vihari in the last session. Pant went on to score 97 and Vihari remained not out to give Australia no chance of a comeback.
“Australia would have been celebrating a win if they had taken their catches. This did not happen, however. The fielding did not allow this to happen. You can have good and bad days on the field. The specialty of the Australian side is that they do not make many mistakes. They made all their mistakes in a single day. Tim Paine had a very bad outing. This happens. Every keeper drops catches but what can we say,” Akmal was quoted as saying by PakistanCricket.com.
Akmal said Paine is lucky he wasn't playing for Pakistan or a lot of things would have been said about him. He has faced it himself for his dropped catches in the Pakistan cricket team.
“I am glad that Pakistan wasn’t playing there and he wasn’t in a Pakistan team or else they would have said so many things about him. Now I will see what will be said by those people who have spoken about me at length. It was an interesting Test and the Australian side made a lot of effort. They did not lose hope anywhere in the match that they could not win. This fighting attitude was their greatest asset,” he added.
The 39-year-old has a poor reputation as a wicket-keeper despite being a very good batsman.
