For 48 deliveries last night Aaron Finch did not hit a single boundary. Yet the Australian captain maintained his composure, worked back into his innings and then demolished the Sri Lankan attack en route to making 153.
Finch has always had the power to clear boundaries but this year his maturity and lack of ego at the crease have helped propel him to a new peak in this format.
Never before has the 32-year-old made 1,000 ODI runs in a calendar year, with his highest tally being 790 runs at 44 back in 2014. But he is certain to crack that milestone in 2019 having already piled up 977 runs at 57 so far this year.
After finishing 2018 in scratchy form across all three formats there was doubt as to whether Finch would be in Australia’s starting XI for this World Cup.
Opposition quicks were targeting his stumps relentlessly. Finch’s front pad kept getting in the way, his head kept falling to the offside, and he kept getting out cheaply.
Over eight ODIs – from the start of the last Aussie summer to the second match in India this year – Finch made 120 runs at 15. With Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh all in fine touch, and stars Steve Smith and David Warner about to return, Finch was suddenly no certainty for the World Cup.
But the Victorian plugged away, clearly making a great effort to stop his front pad from becoming an obstacle. It was that one glaring flaw in his technique that was at the core of his troubles.
Since that second ODI in India, which Australia lost, Finch has plundered a phenomenal 914 runs at 76 in this format.
That has coincided with Australia going on a blazing run of form. He is currently the leading runscorer in this World Cup, with 343 runs at 69, and is batting better than I’ve ever seen.
Finch has left the same impression on former Australian cricketer and astute observer Ed Cowan. Very early in Finch’s innings last night Cowan tweeted that he had “never seen Aaron Finch’s technique look better than the last two games”.
The Aussie skipper looked supreme from the start of his innings last night. His balance, in particular, was sublime.
The first ball he faced was sent skimming past mid-off to the boundary. Two balls later he played a gorgeous on drive, standing tall and using the full face of the bat. That shot was stopped by mid-on, but his fifth ball faced flew between the bowler and that same fieldsman, a textbook example of a straight drive.
For most batsmen the straight drive and on drive are revealing strokes – if they are middling them it’s a strong indicator they’re in fine nick. That is particularly so for Finch because of his proclivity to overbalance to the offside when searching for touch.
Finch’s best form across his ODI career has also been linked closely to patience. During several periods of his 50-over career he began trying to bludgeon attacks from the get go. It has never worked for him. Instead, when he is circumspect early on and plays each ball with the level of respect it deserves, Finch has tended to flourish.
So it has been of late.
Last night Finch began in commanding fashion, cantering to 34 from 26 balls, with seven boundaries. Then he lost a bit of rhythm, his timing became less crisp and his momentum stalled. His scored just 26 runs from his following 47 deliveries, with not a single boundary during this period.
Finch stayed patient, clearly confident that the tide would turn and so it did. From the final ball of the 24th over Finch climbed into a bouncer from Nuwan Pradeep and hooked it way into the crowd.
From then on Finch was back to his fluent best, slamming the spinners down the ground and punishing the quicks when they dropped short.
It was among the top three most impressive innings of his ODI career. While the focus so far in this World Cup has been on Smith and Warner it is the skipper who is emerging as Australia’s key batsmen.
If they are to pull off an upset by defending their World Cup trophy then Finch will need to keep plundering attacks.
Tonka Goldman
Roar Rookie
Played and missed a number of times in the first few overs. He went out twice - one sitter dropped on 30. One delivery clipping the pad flap and subsequent lbw not reviewed. Run outs missed the stumps. Everyone is talking about Australia's 5th bowler, but the 3rd and 4th bowlers are equally concerning... Coulter-Nile and Behrendorff seem to be fruit for the sideboard, and can Kane keep taking wickets? As each week passes the spinners are going to come into their own, and Chahal and Kuldeep; Mo and Rash; are going to be better than ours... I thought I saw Bumrah bowling with a flexy bend in his delivery arm last night vs Pakistan (not the wrist, the elbow), anyone concur? The press must make it an issue before he does it against us.
Rob
Guest
Both Finch, Warner and Smith are terrific runners between the wickets. UK and Marsh are not in the same league. You can only run as well as your partner allows. For those reasons I don’t understand why they would even consider UK and Marsh at 5-7 when picking up as many as you can between the wickets is a priority.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Also, they tried slotting him into all different spots in the warm-ups to keep Finch / Khawaja together, and then move back to him opening for the WC despite not playing him there in any of the warm-ups. I think they needed to decide he was going to open, so play him there in all the warm-ups and not mess with things. There is definitely an issue where he's not trusting his shots to just go out there and bat freely. What the answer to that is, I have no idea. Hopefully Ponting and Langer are able to help him out with that, and we can see the free-wheeling Warner before the end of the tournament.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I don't know if Behrendorf opening is the answer. I just think that if he's going to be in the team, having him open up to get the maximum out of him, while Cummins can do really well bowling first change and not giving the batsmen the chance to feel the pressure is relieved when the openers come off, might be the best option considering the limited bowling resources we have outside of Starc and Cummins. The drop-off after those two really is over the top. Cummins has a tournament economy rate of 4.48, Starc 5.41, and everyone else is over 6rpo. NCN is actually the next best in economy rate, at exactly 6, but he has 2 wickets at 111. Sure, he should have had at least one more, with a shocking dropped catch by Carey against India. But still, he's seemed completely non-threatening as a wicket taking threat. In contrast, whether he's bowled well or not, Kane Richardson has 5 wickets at an average of just 21 in 2 games. Probably at this point if we get into some pitches where they are willing to pick a spinner again, the option might be Cummins, Starc, Richardson, Zampa/Lyon. Pretty sure NCN has played his one awesome innings of the WC. He's not going to replicate that again, so no use picking him on the basis of that.
Ben
Guest
He's been pretty much carted every time he's bowled, fielded well as always, no complaint there. His batting has been ok, nothing spectacular, out for 2 ball duck against West Indies and through a great start against Pakistan after getting himself to 20+, we need more from an experienced international batsman if we are to dig ourselves out of tough situations, like if he comes to the crease at 3-100. Him making a quickfire 30 just isnt good enough.
Magic
Guest
Yes, Chris definitely finch play matchless innings with Warner and most importantly with great sr
Nudge
Roar Rookie
Don’t forget Pattinson, James. He’s still probably more unlikely than likely, but if he’s fit and firing I’d have him in.
jameswm
Roar Guru
Hasn't changed though Baz, unless there are issues with Burns. 1 Warner 2 Burns 3 Khawaja 4 Smith 5 Head 6 Patterson 7 Paine 8 Cummins 9 Starc 10 Lyon 11 Hazlewood 12 Harris 13 Maxwell 14 Carey 15 JRichardson 16 Not sure - you've got Tremain or Siddle, with other options Bird, Sayers, Dorff If Burns no good, either Harris slots straight in as opener, or else you put in Maxwell at 6, Patterson to 3, and UK opening. I'd go the latter.
bigbaz
Roar Guru
Why
Nudge
Roar Rookie
Gday Paul, Ive said my points why I think Behrendorff can offer something as an opening bowler, and I’m comfortable with what I think. I don’t reckon I need to respond to that because we are just going to go around in circles. But I’m pretty surprised that you were offended with the shallow comment. I didn’t call you shallow, I said I thought your thought process was a bit shallow to the situation we were talking about. If you did get offended by this, then you get offended pretty easily
DTM
Guest
As strange as it may seem, I suspect Warner currently has a fear of failure. He has taken Khawaja's spot on reputation and history (not form) after Ussie did a great job in Warner's absence. I think Warner is concerned that if he fails a couple of times he'll either be shunted down the order or dropped. I'm concerned we have one too many "steady" batsmen and one too few hitters. We have not really been convincing against Windies, Pak or Sri Lanka and were well short against the Indians. Still a lot of work to do IMO.
Paul
Roar Guru
Chris, Starc is as good a proponent of swing when he's on song and he's struggled to get anything to move off the straight and narrow. The conditions yesterday should have allowed some movement for a bloke who's main claim to fame is his ability to move the ball but Behrendorff did little to suggest he should keep his place, or for that matter open the attack. For sure he should get another chance against Bangladesh and maybe Finch might open with him, but I'm not holding my breath he'll prove to be a difference maker. Happy to admit I'm wrong if he does well, but I just can't see it.
DTM
Guest
Have to agree. Dorf came on after 4 overs (I think) and they were 0/30 odd - mostly off Starc. Bherendorf's first over went for 1. Starc is a better bowler with a little shine off the ball - proven by his figures in this comp. I would bowl him first change but they wont give me the job of Australian Captain! As good as Finch was last night, it is his captaincy that is making a big difference - he is a much better ODI captain than Smith.
Nudge
Roar Rookie
Hahaha good work qwetzen. Finally we get close to agreeing
Paul
Roar Guru
Nudge, there's nothing shallow about this and why resort to insults? I watched the highlights package again and he was 20 off 2 overs and rightly got dragged. Sure he beat the bat but so what? When he wasn't doing that, he was bowling "hit me" deliveries. He went for better than six and half off nine and would probably have gone for 7 an over if he'd bowled his full quota. As I said previously, by all means give him another chance but he offers little as a batsman and the same as a bowler, if he can only bowl with a new ball, but still gets hammered in his later overs. He will have to do something special to keep his spot in this team, even though the other guys aren't a whole lot better.
Peter Warrington
Guest
Maxwell is going at his career average Striking at 180 Has made 20+ 3 digs in a row Has got off to fliers all 4 times he has scored Bowled well Fielded well - catch, runout the game before Cheering well Playing his unique role as well as anyone could I reckon!
Peter Warrington
Guest
Name the ashes squad now...
Rellum
Roar Guru
Usman right now looks a liability against short stuff at decent speed. He clearly is rattled by the head knocks in the warm up and early games. Wood and Archer will eat him alive. Marsh should play the next game at three to see how he goes. If he does well he should keep his spot. It looks like either Stoinis or M.Marsh will play the next game so there will be only room for one of Uzzie or Shaun
VivGilchrist
Roar Rookie
The problem is that with Warner batting the way he is (plodding), Marsh and Khawaja are now surplus to requirements. There’s a glaring whole in the XI where Handscomb should be. If Warner goes back to his attacking best Marsh or Khawaja have a role again.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Yeah, I believe that the Smith/Ussie interchangeability is dependent on who gets out first. It's a Good Plan.