Scandal had a big effect, says Paine
Johannesburg, April 3: The fall- out from Australia's ball- tampering scandal had a major effect on the performance of the team, new captain Tim Paine said after his team were thrashed by 492 runs in the fourth Test at the Wanderers Stadium on Tuesday.
The defeat gave South Africa a 3- 1 series victory, their first at home against Australia since 1969/ 70.
Paine admitted that South Africa had outplayed Australia after losing the first Test in Durban.
“We can't hide from the fact that purely on skill they outplayed us,” he said.
But he said he was disappointed at the lack of fight shown as Vernon Philander ripped through his team on the final morning.
“There’s been enough spoken about the week we had,” said Paine.
“We're disappointed with the way we handled it. This group had a chance to show some real fight and determination today, but unfortunately we weren't able to.
“Mentally we weren’t quite there. You only have to be slightly off in any game of cricket, let alone ( against) a team as good as South Africa, and you get exposed. I thought we were going to be better than we were. It obviously had more of an effect on guys than we probably knew ourselves.”
Paine said Australia would reflect on what had happened. “Now we have the opportunity to go home and start again almost.”
He said the change in team culture that had been spoken about after the scandal had already started. “That will continue to happen,” he said.
“We've obviously got a new coach coming in who will have a huge say on how that is. From my point of view we’ve got to find a fine line between being really respectful of the opposition and also being at a level that is really competitive.”