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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Tim Paine settling in



Rookie Tim Paine is enjoying life as a part of Australia's one-day team after his maiden century at Trent Bridge on Thursday.


Paine's ton helped the tourists go 6-0 up in their series against England.
The 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman has got off to a flying start in an Australia shirt as he has seamlessly filled in for injured first-choice keeper Brad Haddin at the top of the order.
After making his debut in the win against Scotland last month, Paine is yet to taste defeat in seven one-day internationals for his country.
Great going
He belied his inexperience with a composed 111 from 148 balls that not only moved Australia to the brink of record-breaking whitewash of their greatest rivals, but which also sent them back to the top of the ICC one-day rankings.
Paine showed no sign of nerves until he crept up on his milestone last night - before he spent nine balls on 98 - but after reaching three figures with a push to long-on he admitted he is enjoying life as an international player.
"I'm rapt. Obviously I got a bit nervous there so to get it out of the way and for the team to win a sixth straight game is a great performance," said Paine who is now the second leading runscorer in the series with 233 at 38.83.
"It's been great to be spending a bit more time at this level and getting comfortable with big crowds and all that sort of stuff.
"I haven't thought too much of what will happen when Brad returns, but for now I'm just concentrating on enjoying playing for me country."
Paine admitted he had been frustrated not to convert some of his starts earlier in the series into a big score.
He showed composure on Thursday to first see out James Anderson's testing early spell, before putting the home attack to the sword.
It was an innings for England's aspiring batsmen to take note of after a series when they have been unable to display similar fortitude, and Paine's comments afterwards portrayed a young player intent on proving his credentials.
Knowing the job well
"My job opening the batting for Australia is to score runs and in the first few games I felt reasonably good but just didn't go on with it," he said.
"So it was pleasing once I got my start to cash in. I was conscious of that; if I did make a start then I had to cash in and have the mental thing to be hard on yourself and keep batting.
"I was pushing myself mentally and trying to bat for as long as I could. I knew if I did that I'd get the runs I wanted."
Australia can become the first team to secure a 7-0 series win when the series reaches its final stop at Chester-le-Street on Sunday.
The match will be their last before the Champions Trophy begins in South Africa next week and all-rounder James Hopes warned they would be gunning to maintain the momentum they've built up.
"We heard last night that 7-0 has never been done before so that's a bit more of a motivation," Hopes told Sky Sports News.
"We don't want to go to the Champions Trophy losing the last game before that.
"We are in quite a tough pool against Pakistan, India and the West Indies so we have to go there winning and 7-0 against England, there's nothing better than that."

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