Tim Paine Calls For Consistency Regarding The Over-Rate Penalties In The World Test Championship Moving Forward

Australia Test captain Tim Paine lamented the inconsistency surrounding the deduction of points for the over-rate offence in the World Test Championship. The inaugural edition of the World Test Championship saw Australia missing out narrowly on the finals’ spot. Tim Paine underlined that not many nations would have copped such a blow due to over-rate offences.

Tim Paine’s men copped a four-point loss in their eight-wicket defeat to Melbourne as they fell two overs short of the required 15 overs per hour. It meant that Australia’s score was 69.2% behind New Zealand, which had 70% in their kitty. India, with 72%, faced New Zealand in the tournament-decider at the Rose Bowl Southampton, where the Kiwis emerged victorious.

Tim Paine, who backed India to win the final, revealed he did not watch the match too much and flicked his television off after the first day had been washed out due to persistent rains. The Tasmanian keeper-batsman felt disappointed as Australia could not make it.

“I watched the last day. I turned it on excited to watch the first day, well I thought I was excited and then got a bit dirty and didn’t want to watch it so I flicked it off. Obviously, it rained as well for the first day. I’m bitterly disappointed that we weren’t there because of an over-rate. We’ve always got things in place to try and help out with that but unfortunately, it doesn’t always work,” Paine said as quoted by India Today.

Unfortunately, we were the team I think that’s borne the brunt of it for an over-rate: Tim Paine

“Unfortunately, we were the team I think that’s borne the brunt of it for an over rate. I think there’s been a lot of Test match cricket in the last two years where teams haven’t bowled their overs. I’m not sure how many teams lost points out of it but I think there needs to be a little bit more consistency around it, given now that the prize is so big and a couple of overs can cost you four points. Look we were behind on our overs, and that’s what it is. My thing is just with consistency. 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,” he added.

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