Paine: Headingley loss makes it even sweeter

Tim Paine, the Australia captain, said that the fallout from “Sandpapergate” helped the team recover from losing at Headingley by one wicket to crush England by 185 runs here and retain the Ashes.

“The group has clearly been through a bit of adversity – some more than others,” Paine said. “But the guys sat in that changing room have been through what happened at Cape Town and at times like that you find out what sort of people you have got.

“You find people who can give up or keep fighting and we have got guys who have come back and kept fighting and are wanting to get better and keep wanting to be in situations like we got at Headingley. Because those games, when you do win, feel very special. Headingley’s loss makes this all the more sweeter after a lot of people wrote us off.”

Paine admitted to fearing that England could pull off another remarkable turnaround as Jack Leach and Craig Overton batted together for 14 overs for the ninth wicket.

“There were a few nervous moments coming off Headingley, but I thought we learnt from that, held our nerve and bowled really well against a team that fought hard like we knew they would,” he said.

“At the end, it was just a bit of raw emotion when you have a little bit of success particularly on the back of last week and the last 18 months. We haven’t had a lot of success and not a lot of happy times.”

Paine warned there was more to come from his predecessor Steve Smith, who has scored 671 runs in the series. “He is a genius and I never doubted he would be the player he was [after his ban]. The scary thing is he’s getting better.”