T20 World Cup 2021 | Knew we could get past South Africa at halfway mark, says Aaron Finch after ‘clinical’ win over Bangladesh

11/04/2021

Australia skipper Aaron Finch lauded his team’s all-round show in a dominant eight-wicket win over Bangladesh on Thursday. Australia sealed the chase in mere 6.2 overs to overtake South Africa in the Group 1 points table, which strengthened their chances for the T20 WC 2021 semi-final qualification.

Aaron Finch smashed a 20-ball 40 to help Australia seal the 74-run chase against Bangladesh with a staggering 82 balls to spare in Dubai on Thursday. With their third win in the T20 World Cup 2021 Super 12s stage, Australia moved past South Africa in the Group 1 points table on the virtue of a superior net run-rate (NRR) of +1.031.

Earlier, it was Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood who set the tone with two wickets each, before Adam Zampa’s 5/19 highlighted a dominant performance with the ball.

Finch was highly impressed with the overall effort.

"Really clinical performance,” said Finch after the win. “Mitchell Starc set the tone and Hazlewood followed with that in the second over. We thought we would take the opportunity to win big if we got the chance, but you can't plan for that. At the halfway mark, we knew we could get past South Africa. When you have that opportunity, you have to take it.

“We saw some swing in the first over. When Starc is back to his best, that happens early. Zampa's 5/19 was outstanding.

“(On whether he will support England for their game against South Africa) Don't know if we ever are! We have to play well against West Indies. We have a couple of days to recharge and then a couple of days to practice."

Zampa, who was deprived of a hat-trick courtesy of a dropped caught-behind chance by Matthew Wade, felt nice about getting his first-ever T20I five-fer. The 29-year-old reflected on the aspects needed to excel as a wrist-spinner, and spoke of his role within the bowling group.

“First five-fer it is always a pretty nice feeling,” said Zampa as he received the Player of the Match award. “I have been playing for 5-6 years and that's one eluded me for a while. I think I had three overs between that over and the hat-trick ball, I thought I was the only one who knew (about the hat-trick ball).. but if it wouldn't have been for Wadey's hands I wouldn't be getting so many wickets, he's been keeping beautifully well, tough catch but just happy with the win.

“I think for wrist spinners being successful, it needs is a bit of both conditions and skill. The quicks have been tough to score off in the powerplay, also guys like Maxwell doing well which gives me a chance to pick wickets in the middle overs. There have been some really good wrist spinners and they are getting wickets because teams are coming harder in the middle overs.

“It does change my role (when I'm the lone spinner) but I don't feel any added pressure, even when Ashton (Agar) plays my role is to pick wickets in the middle. Sometimes you bowl in the powerplay and sometimes in the back end, but the overs I bowled today were purely to take wickets. We needed to chase down a low score today and we tried to be aggressive.”

Australia will take on West Indies in their last Super 12s fixture in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, November 6.