Finch’s form is little solace
AARON Finch’s eighth oneday international century gave Australian cricket a silver lining amid the darkness of a series loss to India.
Finch watched Australia lose the first two games of the five- match series from the sidelines while he recovered from a calf injury.
He returned for Game 3 in Indore but even a commanding 124 off 125 balls couldn’t save the visitors, who were undermined by another batting collapse.
Australia was 2- 243 in the 42nd over but was restricted to 6- 293.
Indian openers Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma put together a stand of 139 in less than 22 overs and the home side cruised home with five wickets and 13 balls to spare.
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 wellpaced innings, I thought, and it’s nice to see him hit the ball well in his first game back.”
Finch smashed four sixes off Indian spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.
But Yadav eventually claimed his wicket when Finch 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 David Warner for a 70- run opening stand. In 43 innings together, they have racked up 1787 runs at an average of 40.16.
“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.