India vs Australia, semi-final: Aaron Finch changes gears, doesn’t give an inch

Aaron Finch sealed his spot in the national team after his world record T20I score of 156 off just 63 balls against England in 2013. (Source: Reuters)

Australian opener Aaron Finch is always expected to be the one who takes off immediately after taking strike. He first came to light for his world record T20I score of 156 off just 63 balls against England in 2013. He even smashed a record 14 sixes in that innings. That effort helped him seal a permanent place in the Australian ODI XI. (Full Coverage| Venues | Fixtures)

His next big moment came during the MCC vs Rest of the World match in 2014. Playing against the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Shane Warne, Finch stole the show with a mammoth score of 181. Legend has it that he even considered throwing it away during the innings when he was on 60, because he had thought people would prefer to see the greats more than him.

But things have changed now and most people come to watch Finch in action. Hence it was quite a surprise to see Finch play an uncharacteristic innings of 81 off 116 balls with seven boundaries and a six. It was uncharacteristic because Finch is usually known to strike at better than a run a ball. But his mixed bag of returns in the ongoing World Cup had forced him to change his approach.

Finch even approached former Australian Test player Andrew McDonald for help at nets two days ago. “It was just a good opportunity, he’s someone I’ve worked with a lot over the last couple of years – for about 10 or years now on my game – and he’s someone I feel comfortable with,” Finch had said.

“He’s just someone I really trust, he’s one of my best mates and he knows a lot about the game. He’s been around my batting for a long time and I thought it was a good opportunity to get him up here for a day and have a hit. I feel like I’ve been batting nicely, it’s nice to go back to a couple of checkpoints and make sure that I’m on top of my game and feeling good and hitting the ball nicely. That’s all I can ask and whatever will happen on Thursday will happen. I’m not someone who over-analyses it a hell of a lot,” added Finch.

This thought process of Finch certainly paid dividends for the opener. He did much better than some of his illustrious partners. His partnership of 182 runs for the second wicket with Steve Smith certainly changed the course of the innings. After the early fall of David Warner in the fourth over, Finch shouldered responsibility and changed the course of the innings.

“When you’re under pressure you go back to your basics and I think we’ve got some really good ‘basic’ players. We’ve got a lot of guys with flair, but when they’re under pressure they’ve still got a really good defence to fall back on, a really structured game,” Finch had said on the eve of the match.

That comment was proved right by Finch himself on Thursday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

Source:: Indian Express