Tim Paine: Australia captain scores first-class century after 13 years

Australia captain Tim Paine was among the highest scorers in the domestic competition scoring a century for Tasmania against Western Australia in the opening round of the Sheffield Shield. The century also ended Tim Paine's 13-year drought of reaching the three-figure mark as he hit his second first-class hundred at WACA Ground, Perth on Saturday.

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Tim Paine's maiden century

Tim Paine’s maiden century in first-class cricket had come when now Australia head coach Justin Langer was opening the innings under the captaincy of Ricky Ponting. Tim Paine was then 21-years-old when he smashed 215 off 409 balls at the same venue against the same team.

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Coming in at 5/176 chasing Western Australia’s first innings score of 337, Paine hit 13 fours and a six in his 208-ball 121 reaching the 100-run mark with a cut shot of Western Australian spinner Ashton Agar for a boundary. His innings though ended after he mistimed a pull shot off Jhye Richardson to get caught off mid-wicket.

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Australia captain Tim Paine's record in international cricket

Tim Paine was appointed Australia skipper after Steve Smith stepped down from the captaincy for his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal. The 34-year-old has played 26 Tests for his side but has not been able to score a single hundred yet. He has the third-highest Test average for an Australian wicketkeeper of all time at 31.45 which is only behind Adam Gilchrist at 47.6 and Brad Haddin with 35.82. 

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Tim Paine: An Ashes to forget

Recently, Paine led Australia to an Ashes victory in England, but his captaincy came under criticism after making poor decisions in terms of using the Decision Review System (DRS). With the bat, Paine had a poor Ashes series scoring just 180 runs from 10 innings at an average of 20.