Top 6 Aaron Finch knocks in T20s
There is absolutely no doubt that Aaron Finch is one of the fiercest strikers of the cricket ball in the world at the moment. And also, he is currently the best batsman in this Australian ODI and T20 teams. In the absence of star players David Warner and Steve Smith, the responsibility on the Victorian opener has grown but he has shown that he can adapt and shoulder that extra responsibility. His brute power and big-hitting standards certainly make him one of the most dangerous openers in limited-overs cricket in the world at the moment.
Finch made his First-Class and List ‘A’ debuts in the year 2007 for Victoria and played his maiden T20 game in the 2008/09 Big Bash League. His T20 ability and game came into the limelight with his stupendous performances in the 2010 Champions League T20 tournament where he played a couple of excellent knocks.
Having made his T20I debut in 2011, Finch is now a mainstay and one of the integral (and most important) members of the Australian limited-overs set-up. In fact, in T20Is, Finch is the second highest run-getter for Australia with 1530 runs. Also, he is one of two players (the other being Brendon McCullum) who have got two 150+ scores in T20 cricket history and he is the only one to do it in international cricket.
Hence, let’s take a quick look at some of his top innings in T20 cricket.
#6 50 vs Sunrisers Hyderabad – IPL 2016, Delhi (Qualifier 2)
In 2016, Aaron Finch seemed to be in decent form. He was Australia’s best batsman in the 3-match T20I series against India at home. He then had played decently in the two chances he got in Australia’s disappointing World T20 campaign.
He then had a wonderful start to the IPL where he scored three consecutive fifties for Gujarat Lions (GL). He looked in good touch throughout the season and in the second Qualifier, he played a vital knock. With Dwayne Smith and Brendon McCullum in the side, Finch had to bat in the middle order after opening for a few games.
In this Qualifier 2 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, GL were in a spot of bother when he walked out to bat at No. 5. He came in at 63/3 which turned into 83/5 and batted fluently and struck a very good 32-ball 50. Finch had gotten off to a sedate start as he looked to rotate the strike and limit the damage. But once, the fifth wicket fell, Finch went into beast mode as he helped GL score 50 runs in 4.3 overs before he got out. He struck 7 fours and 2 sixes as he gave impetus to GL’s innings in the middle-overs. His efforts helped Gujarat post 162 but David Warner’s magnificent 93 took SRH through to the final.