Not a 'great escape', says defiant Paine

The setting and the eventual drama of the finish notwithstanding, Tim Paine wasn't prepared to accept the drawn result as Australia having performed a "great escape". And it wasn't the only time during his press conference post the Lord's Test where he was keen on underplaying the upper-hand that the English seemed to have had for major periods of the match. Australia eventually managed to stave off defeat with four wickets still in hand with the lights nearly having taken full effect at Lord's. And Paine in fact went on to speak about how his batsmen, including the tailenders in the first innings, had braced up to the Jofra Archer-led English attack through the contest.

"I wouldn't say it was a great escape at all. I would've said we played reasonably well to 3-130 and then you have a little something that doesn't quite go your way and you've got a guy bowling 150ks and it's quite dark and it's difficult. That's Test cricket but we found a way out of it. I'm really proud of our team," the Australian captain said.

Paine also managed to stay defiant in talking up his team's performance when incessant questions on Archer's impact on Test debut were inevitably fired at him. He instead revealed how the Aussies had lasted nearly 100 overs despite the fiery spells dished out by the Bajan-born fast bowler, who ended up striking a number of the visiting batsmen on the head and body. Asked whether Archer's arrival had changed the dynamic of the series, Paine preferred to talk about the current series scoreline and how his team were in a "great position" even if the new express paceman had left a number of his teammates in rather untoward positions at the crease.

"It's 1-nil, we go to a Test match next week in Leeds. We're in a great position. We're happy with the position we're in. I thought Jofra bowled really well in this game. I thought particularly in the first innings - I think we faced 100 odd overs - so there were periods of times where I thought we batted really well, played Jofra well. I think at times he's very difficult to start your innings against because of the pace and the bounce that he gets. But again, I think the guys who got in showed that it is doable. Guys have been around bowling 145, 150ks for a long time. It's a challenge but that's why we're playing Test cricket," he said.

Paine also defended his struggling openers, who have now gone four straight innings in this series without a single performance or partnership of substance. Though he did bring up Marcus Harris' name on a couple of occasions while talking about how there were a number of players in the squad pushing their case from the sidelines, he hinted that Australia might go in with their original pairing at Leeds.

"I think if you look at top order batting across the two teams it shows you it's probably a pretty difficult place to be batting on either side. Yes, those guys would like more runs. We know how good David is, he's got 7000 Test runs at 50 and Cameron Bancroft I thought in this game looked pretty good, faced a lot of balls... probably would've liked to have scored a few more runs but I thought he acquitted himself pretty well again against some pretty high-quality bowling," he said.

It was Paine's dismissal to an airy hook shot in the final half hour of play that gave England a brief glimpse at an improbable win. But Paine stuck to the theme of not letting the spotlight rest on any negative aspect from Australia's outing at Lord's and spoke about the inconsistent bounce on the pitch.

"You don't have a lot of time to think. Sometimes you get it wrong. I was thinking about ducking under it, but 150 can make you do different things. I just didn't hit it where I would have liked to have hit it. I am not going to over think it. I am going to keep playing (the way) I want to play," he said.

Paine became the first Test captain to employ a concussion substitute when Marnus Labuschagne replaced the injured Steve Smith. Eventually, it came down to Labuschagne to