Australia vs India: Jasprit Bumrah cleans up Tim Paine with an in-dipper during the Sydney Test

Tim Paine, the Australian Test skipper, has been captaining the national team for nearly three years now after the infamous ball-tampering scandal at the Newlands in Cape Town. From being a non-regular to being the skipper in the longest format, the 36-year-old had a massive task on his hands. But he has passed most tests with flying colours and has remained as the captain.

Though he averages a tad over 30 in Test cricket, he has played some vital knocks for his team in the lower middle-order. In the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy, Paine has performed decently with the bat in hand. In the opening Day-Night Test, his unbeaten knock of 73 made sure that the Aussies won the game at the Adelaide Oval without having to drop much sweat.

In the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, he couldn’t make much of an impact, getting scores of 13 and one respectively. The Aussies lost the Test by eight wickets and the four-match series was levelled at 1-1. Going into the third Test at the renowned Sydney Cricket Ground, a lot was expected of Paine since he’s the captain of the home team.

Tim Paine fails yet again

Even in the SCG Test, Paine hasn’t been able to perform to potential. In the first innings, he stayed in the middle for 10 balls, scoring one run before getting out to Jasprit Bumrah. In the penultimate ball of the 89th over, Bumrah bowled an in-dipper and Paine had no answer to it. He walked down the track and tried to show the full face of the bat, playing down the ground.

But the ball went through his bat and pad and crashed into the stumps. Paine played all over the ball and saw his stumps go for a toss. The wicket was an important one for Ajinkya Rahane’s India since Paine could have done a lot of damage.

Here’s the video: –

What a delivery that was by Bumrah to Paine. ✅🔥pic.twitter.com/Axd4yOV4bf

— Chinmoy Sharma (@imChinmoy18) January 8, 2021

Apart from dismissing Paine, Bumrah also accounted for the wicket of Cameron Green, who bagged a 21-ball duck. In Australia’s innings, it was Steve Smith, who stole the limelight, scoring 131 runs off 226 balls with 16 fours. The hosts amassed a score of 338 runs on the board.