Ali out of his crease but Tim Paine stepped over the line

Tim Paine’s gleeful dismissal of Azhar Ali was understandable. But was it appropriate for a team trying to change its culture?

Tim Paine runs out a bemused Azhar Ali in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Picture: Fox Sports

Tim Paine’s gleeful dismissal of Azhar Ali was understandable. But was it appropriate? The Pakistan batsman was standing in the middle of the pitch like a right schmuck. He deserved what he got. And yet Australia’s Test captain could have proved his side’s newfangled dedication to sportsmanship was more than a myth by letting Azhar off the hook for an honest mistake. Paine did nothing wrong at Abu Dhabi. He just missed the opportunity to do something extraordinarily right.

What happened to the fresh new era of impeccably fair play? We know, we know. Never give a sucker or Pakistan batsman an even break. Paine declined to do so. He whipped off the bails and sprinted to his teammates to holler, hoot, laugh and rub salt in Azhar’s wounds of humiliation. The Pakistani received a walk to the pavilion for his troubles. A lifetime of embarrassment. Sledging from his three sons every time he gives them orders. Kids, pay attention! Shut up, Dad! You never do!

In case you missed cricket’s version of a Benny Hill skit, here’s what happened. Having thick-edged a medium-slow offering from Peter Siddle past gully, Azhar thought the ball had gone for four. Pickets, not wickets. He was chatting away with Asad Shafiq in a mid-wicket conference when the ball stopped short of the rope. Mitchell Starc picked it up and flung it to Paine. Australia’s keeper-captain wasn’t even at the stumps. Paine knocked off the bails and celebrated like the tourists had pulled off a miracle play. But it wasn’t anything of the sort.

This was a dismissal Australia did not deserve. Paine could have declined to take it.

In Australia’s oft-stated desire to prove their new fair-minded philosophy after the cheating scandal in South Africa, Paine would have made a commanding statement by giving Azhar a reprieve. How, one might say, was Australia’s opportunism different to Pakistan sending Marnus Labuschagne on his way for his own farcical run-out? Because Labuschagne knew exactly what was happening. He failed to ground his bat after the ball had flicked Yasir Shah’s fingers on the way to the stumps. He wasn’t unsighted. He wasn’t making an honest error. He did not believe the passage of play had been completed.

Paine has done a sterling job in charge of a battered and bruised Australian side. Anyone who’s played the sport knows he was within his rights to pounce on Azhar’s lapse. But these are extraordinary times in Australian cricket after Sandpapergate and when it comes to sportsmanship, extraordinary measures need to be taken. Two thoughts have come to mind while watching it happen. Is he really going to do this? And then I’ve had a flashback to Australia’s marathon runner, Michael Shelley, going past Callum Hawkins after the Scotsman had collapsed in the final stages at the Commonwealth Games. We get the reasons. It’s professional sport. Dog-eat-dog. But Australian cricketers are fighting battles on two fronts. To prove they can play. To prove they’re not uncouth ragbags. They’re greatest statements will be in actions, not words. As an aside, it may be an idea for Labuschagne to ditch his habit of appealing for dismissals by running at his teammates rather than looking at the umpire for his verdict.

Anyway, what a comedy routine from Azhar. It may only have been funnier if Inzamam-ul-Haq was involved. Azhar’s 10-year-old son, Ibtisam, the eldest of three, had just arrived at the ground to watch his father bat. Dads can be so embarrassing.

“They’re going to speak about it for years,” Azhar grinned. “Whenever I say something to them they are going to come back to me about this run out. There is no explanation about it. You shouldn’t be not watching the ball for long.

“It was one of those things where neither Asad or I had sight of it. When Tim Paine started to run towards the stumps then I thought there was something a little bit funny about it. Then it was a shock after that.”

Allan Border called it “just total stupidity.” Mike Hussey said on the Fox Sports coverage: “We’ve seen some of the biggest rookie errors in this Test match, but that takes the cake.”

Azhar was furious in the dressing room until Pakistan forged such a mountainous lead that his brain fade hardly mattered. “Everyone knows that the batsman is going through a lot anyway so no one really came and spoke to me too much about it afterwards,” he said. “Obviously it was quite serious at the time. The team required big partnerships at the time. But when we got that big partnership later on, everyone started to see the funny side of it … it was my own fault.”