Australia’s Tim Paine plays down on-field comments to England’s Ben Stokes

Australia captain Tim Paine refused his side had let sledging go too far as England laid the bases for an Ashes-levelling success in the last Test.
SCORECARD | AS IT HAPPENED
England batted during day as they piled a lead of 382 up with at The Oval, also will seem to extend that 400 when they restart on 313-8.
The tourists attempted to unsettle the hosts with Matthew Wade apparently to the end, with a stream of chatter in a morning session, along with the stump microphone picked up attempts to end up Ben Stokes during his combative knock of 67.
The England all-rounder overlooked the Ashes series Down Under following his arrest for a night scuffle in Bristol – an episode that finally resulted in his acquittal on charges of affray – and also references to the city were seemingly audible from the fielders.
Paine was brought in to captain his country in an overt effort to clean up run and Australia’s reputation following the sandpaper scandal and didn’t take kindly to proposals.
“You tell me. It’s competitive Test cricket and individuals are going to speak to one another,” he said.
“I really don’t understand why it’s such an issue. It is fine. They’re grown men having a conversation, no one is swearing, nobody is abusing anyone: it match cricket and I really don’t understand why a lot is made of something little, especially given the standard of cricket being played.
“I think there is so much more to talk about. I think both sides have played this series in good spirit.”
Joe Denly was outside in the midst for longer than every other batsman as he underpinned the England innings and he dropped to fan the fires.
“I did not hear anything about Bristol but if Ben comes to the crease, the sort of player he is, they are likely to try and unsettle him,” he explained.
“Stokesy copes with this fairly well. There’s always going to be a bit of niggle but nothing on the lineup, just a lot of friendly banter.”
Denly has experienced a memorable couple of days, becoming a dad for the second time in between the first and second of this match. To follow that news up with a performance of real grit and substance at his final look of the summer rested and amazingly well left him content.
“I had an excellent last night because I stayed in the hotel and got about 10 hours! The previous night I had about three hours so I grabbed up,” he explained.
“I missed the arrival of my first child – he arrived three weeks early and that I had been playing Derby, the midwife stated’don’t hurry’ so that I didn’t! I missed it by about five minutes hit traffic. So it was great to have there and watch my little woman. It’s been a fairly special couple of times.
“It’d have been nice to get to the landmark having worked so hard but I would probably take it, yeah. England are in a really strong position going to day four and hopefully we get a few more runs and place them under pressure”
See live coverage from day four of the fifth Test on Sky Sports The Ashes, by 10.30am on Sunday.
Follow over-by-over comment and in-play clips on skysports.com and the Sky Sports App.

Read more here: http://newhighcolombia.com/?p=28772