Paine hits back at ‘chokers’ jibe but admits to mistakes

TIM PAINE has insisted Australia did not choke in the miracle of Headingley while responding tetchily to suggestions from England bowling sensation Jofra Archer they had panicked. The Australia captain, tactically naive while Ben Stokes played one of the greatest innings in Test history at Leeds, admitted he made mistakes in the field as Australia crashed to a nail-biting defeat with the Ashes all but theirs. And Paine said Stokes gave him ‘sleepless nights’ in the nine days Australia have had to dwell on how they lost by one wicket in a third Test that could have seen them retain the urn with two matches to play. Archer said Australia ‘panicked’ in the fateful final hour in Leeds when Stokes and Jack Leach came together, leading to accusations they had choked. Not so, said a visiting captain struggling more than ever to justify his place in his side. ‘No,’ said Paine firmly when the dreaded word ‘choke’ was put to him. ‘Jofra’s entitled to his opinion, but we made mistakes — it happens. ‘We’ve addressed it as a team. I was certainly one of those who made mistakes, but we’ve moved on. We are ready for another great Test match.’ What would he have done differently at Headingley? ‘My field placings,’ he added. ‘There were times looking back where it was obvious I should’ve had the field up and even allowed Ben to hit a couple of boundaries so we could have more balls at the tailender. But I didn’t and we’ve learnt from it.’