Kane’s brain fade icing on the cake Head, Paine in brilliant stand

TIM Paine produced his best batting effort as captain and Travis Head smashed a second Test century as Australia turned the screws on a “submissive” New Zealand outfit in a Boxing Day debacle for the tourists.

Negative bowling from the Black Caps was met with positive batting from Paine, who scored his third half-century as skipper as the Kiwis lost their way at the MCG.

And it only got worse for the Kiwis when skipper Kane Williamson tried an uncharacteristic hoik against James Pattinson, and skied the ball to keeper Paine. Williamson’s brain fade brought the arrival of Ross Taylor, who survived a confident lbw shout on a DRS call.

The Kiwis’ short-ball assault went awry as bouncers so big they were called wides filtered into the Black Caps’ bowling and any sense of pressure on the home side dissolved. When opening batsman Tom Blundell took the first over after lunch it was akin to the Kiwis waving the white flag, but proved like a red rag to a bull for Paine.

The Aussie captain had already smashed 12 runs off the final over before the break from spinner Mitchell Santner, who was more passenger than participant in the game.

After the Aussies scored just 27 runs in the first hour of the day, Paine decided to put his foot down and in doing so took a baseball bat to anyone still wanting to suggest captaincy skills alone couldn’t keep him in the side.

Paine, whose innings was his best since he made 58 in Manchester during the Ashes, showed intent from ball one. Coming in after Steve Smith fell short of a fifth straight Boxing Day Test century, Paine played the Plan A short stuff from the Kiwis in equal parts as warrior and craftsman.

Coach Justin Langer has often called Paine the “toughest pretty boy I’ve seen” and the skipper lived out that description.