A deflated Tim Paine conceded that India’s plans worked better than his side’s and that the visitors won the key moments during the four-match series.
“Whether it was with bat, ball or in the field, every time we had a chance to get ahead of the game, we let it slip. It happened a little bit in Sydney with our fielding, and then probably yesterday with our batting,” said Paine, who has been in charge of Australia during both its home series defeats to India.
“I think India just managed to play better than us, they managed to get through our plans for longer than we managed to get through theirs, particularly in the key moments,” he added.
Commenting on where his side lost the game after taking the first-innings lead, Paine said, “We lost wickets when we tried to put the foot down and couldn’t quite get a partnership together. And I thought every time India needed a wicket, they somehow managed to do it.”
The Australian wicketkeeper felt that his side had the advantage going into the fifth day in both Sydney and Brisbane, but credited India’s batting for denying the home team a chance to win.
“We turned to Sydney on day five and Gabba on day five in as good a position as you want to be and could not get the job done. There are some things we could have done better, [but] the Indian batting group was amazing on both those day fives,” Paine remarked.
“We have been outplayed, we had our chances to win this series, to win this Test match and we didn’t take them,” he added.
