Australia's white-ball skipper Aaron Finch heaved a sigh of relief as he returned to form with a brilliant knock of 44-ball 69 in his team’s comprehensive 64-run victory over New Zealand in the third T20I at Wellington on Wednesday (March 3).
"It was just nice to get a few runs, it's been a while," Cricbuzz quoted Finch as saying. "I was still a little bit tentative in the first couple of balls, going into defend and survival mode as opposed to being aggressive when I'm playing my best. When I'm playing at my best I'm hitting down the ground quite a bit, presenting the full face of the bat."
Finch added 83 runs for the second wicket with Josh Philippe (43 off 27 balls) and followed it up with a 64-run stand with Glenn Maxwell (70 off 31 balls) as Australia piled up 208/4 in 20 overs.
The captain is now hoping to build on his latest knock.
"As a batter it can be bloody tough at times. I know I've done it before, I know I'm not a bad player. Now for me it's about building on that.
"I was just short of runs. It's never easy when you're trying to lead the side and you're not performing as well as you would like personally. But you always put the team first. I felt as though my captaincy has been pretty good throughout this period as well, right through the Big Bash.”
Finch had a tough time with the bat during the recently held BBL 10, scoring 179 runs at an average of 13.76 in 13 innings for Melbourne Renegades.
He scored 1 and 12 in the first two T20Is against New Zealand but didn't let self-doubt creep in too much.
"I obviously would have loved to have got some more but I was never doubting that I would never get runs again. T20 can be a brutal game at the best of times so just having the ability to take a step a game and reassess my own game and go out there with as clear a mind as you can.
"When you're searching for a score sometimes you can forget the absolute basics, you get a bit fixated on the end result and not what's right in front of you at the time. At times it was a little bit of wanting so desperately to get some runs that you forget to watch the ball. As soon as you don't ... one percent can be enough in this game to have you off and you're out.
With the ball, the visitors bundled out the Kiwis to 144 in 17.1 overs to register a series-saving win. Ashton Agar was the stand-out bowler, claiming 6 wickets by conceding 30 runs in his four overs.
The fourth T20I will be held in Wellington on Friday (March 5).
