Australia Test captain Tim Paine has urged match officials to maintain consistency while handing out penalties for slow over-rates, expressing regret over the missed opportunity to feature in the inaugural World Test Championship final due to a crucial points deduction.

Paine’s Australia were competing for a spot in the WTC final when they were docked four points during the Melbourne Test against India last December. Match referee David Boon’s decision to penalise Australia paved the way for New Zealand to become the first finalists, eventually leaving Australia at third spot on the points table.

“Bitterly disappointed that we weren’t there [WTC final] because of over rates,” Paine was quoted as saying by The Age.  “We’ve always got things in place to try to help out with that, but unfortunately it doesn’t always work.

“Unfortunately, we’re the team that I think has borne the brunt of it for an over rate,” he said. “I think there’s been a lot of Test match cricket in the last two years where teams haven’t bowled their overs and I’m not sure how many teams lost points out of it. I think there needs to be a little bit more consistency around it, given now that the prize is so big and a couple of overs can cost you four points.”

Paine’s team was found to be two overs short of their target during the MCG Test, after the time allowances were taken into consideration. Australia ended with a PCT (points contested per points won) of 69.2, just short of New Zealand’s 70.0 which booked them a place in the final, which they eventually won.

“We were behind on our overs, and that’s what it is,” Paine continued. “My thing is just with the consistency. I haven’t played in too many days where the full overs have been bowled, and to my knowledge, there hasn’t been other teams docked points [West Indies and South Africa were the only other teams to be docked points]. Yeah, it’s a bitter pill to swallow when you’re the only team that’s been docked points and you see it happen Test match after Test match, after Test match.”

Last month, Paine apologised to New Zealand fans for predicting that India would win the WTC final “pretty comfortably”. New Zealand won the match by eight wickets to lift the Test mace.

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