Finch shines light on dark day for Aussies

AARON Finch’s eighth oneday international century has given Australian cricket a silver lining amid the darkness of an ODI series loss to India.

Finch was forced to watch Australia lose the first two games of the five-match series from the sidelines while he recovered from a calf injury.

He returned for the third game, in Indore, but even a commanding knock of 124 off 125 balls could not save the visitors, who were undermined by another batting collapse.

Captain Steve Smith said Finch’s decision-making was behind his superb innings, which included 12 fours and five sixes.

“We’ve been having a lot of those collapses in the middle overs and up top,” Smith said.

“He picked the right balls to attack the spinner. He picked the right balls to go over the top with the quicks. It was just a very well-paced innings, I thought, and it’s nice to see him hit the ball well in his first game back.”

Finch smashed four of his five sixes off Indian spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. But Yadav eventually claimed his wicket when he hit a slog sweep straight down Kedar Jadhav’s throat at deep mid-wicket.

Finch provided a steady hand at the top of the order as he reunited with long-time opening partner David Warner for a 70-run stand.

Having the pair firing at the top of the order was important to providing Australia with a solid foundation, Smith said.

In 43 innings together, they have racked up 1787 runs at an average of 40.16 with four 100run partnerships.

“Quite often they get off to a really good start and it allows guys to take a little bit more time and get the pace of the wicket,” Smith said. “It came off tonight and hopefully in the next two games we can see another good partnership from those two at the top.”

Finch replaced makeshift opener Hilton Cartwright who was bowled for one in the first two matches of the series.