ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 30, 2021

Aaron Finch

Dubai International Stadium

Australia

Post Match Media Conference

England 126/2, Australia 125

Q. What was your take on that game in the end? Was it just complete dominance by England, or did you have a bad day?

AARON FINCH: They completely dominated us from the start. I think anytime that you go a handful down in the powerplay, and anytime we felt like we started to get a partnership, we just kept losing a wicket, and it just meant we had to try and sit in longer to hopefully get to a total of around 150 and see if that would be competitive. As it was, we probably needed a few more.

Q. You've obviously played a lot of cricket against England down the years. Have you come up against a team as strong as this one?

AARON FINCH: They're very good. They're very well-rounded. They've got a lot of bases covered in terms of their quicks, spin, death bowling, and their batting is as powerful as anything.

I mean, when Rashid is batting at No. 10, you know you've got a pretty good lineup. So yeah, they're a dominant side, no doubt. We've seen that for the last couple of years. But yeah, we had a bad day, as well.

Q. Jos Buttler's performance, where would you put that one? It looked pretty special.

AARON FINCH: Yeah, outstanding knock. He struck the ball cleanly. We knew they were going to come hard, as well. Yeah, it was just one of those things that you have to keep pressing when you've got the ball in your hand, and yeah, didn't quite go our way.

Q. I guess Mitch Starc hasn't been hit onto the top deck too often in back-to-back deliveries.

AARON FINCH: I'm not sure. No, I don't think so, but yeah, I'm not sure.

Q. Steve Smith, is he okay? He was holding his groin; did he have a twinge or something?

AARON FINCH: No, he'll be fine. He didn't mention anything, so I'm sure that he'll be fine. We're all getting a bit older, aren't we.

Q. Today was not your day, and England completely dominated in all departments. What was the turning point? Where did you guys went wrong?

AARON FINCH: Oh, I think obviously the powerplay was -- they bowled very well, put us on the back foot, and then we were under pressure to try and get to a competitive total. All credit to England in that powerplay, the way that they squeezed us, kept taking wickets, which obviously when you go in with specialist batters that probably is going to leave you a little bit short at times.

Q. Shane Warne earlier said that he was disappointed about your selection of playing Steve Smith and not playing Marsh, and also sending Maxwell in the powerplay. Do you agree on his views, and also guide me through the dew factor because Mohammad Nabi last night, he also said that the dew factor was not into play. How did the dew factor play today?

AARON FINCH: Yeah, the dew came in a little bit towards the end there, but I don't think it would have made a huge amount of difference.

Maxwell going in in the powerplay, when you've only got six specialist batters, you're backing your top six to get the job done, so there's no issues there. Maxy has done extremely well in the past; he's as destructive as anyone if he gets through the powerplay, so that's okay.

And Smith instead of Marsh, that's just subjective, isn't it. Everyone has got a different opinion on it, and that's okay. We thought we picked a team to win the game tonight.

Q. Kind of picking up a little bit on that, can you explain what was the rationale behind leaving Mitch Marsh out, and how did you feel like that balance worked out?

AARON FINCH: Oh, clearly when you go three down in the powerplay, it's not an ideal scenario when you go in with that structured team. The reason Agar was in there was we felt it was a really good matchup for England. His ability to bowl in the powerplay and through the middle overs in the past against England has been really good. We just thought that that was the way to go tonight. It was not a reflection on how Mitch has been going at all. It was purely just a matchup thing for this game. Yeah, it was unfortunate we didn't get the job done.

Q. Just more generally with this team, is there a sense of it's still kind of gelling? Obviously it's a very different team to the one that you took to the West Indies and that obviously played in Bangladesh, as well. Is it still you're kind of figuring out how you work together?

AARON FINCH: I don't think so. I think the majority of us have played a lot of cricket together over the years, whether it's over different formats. I think that can naturally -- that happens anyway. No is the simple answer to that.

Q. How do you turn things around? When you take a thumping like that, how does it not become a psychological thing going into a game in four days' time?

AARON FINCH: I think we've got a couple of days off to refresh and recharge. The boys have been training really well and deserve a couple of days off. It was a quick turnaround from the Sri Lankan game to today, so recharge the batteries, and then a couple of really strong days of training, and then we'll be back into it.

Yeah, there's a lot of experience in the group. I'm not concerned about carrying baggage into a different game against a totally different opposition.

Q. Did that result cast your mind back at all to that 2019 World Cup semifinal when England and Chris Woakes specifically sort of got on top of you right from the off?

AARON FINCH: It hadn't until right now, so thanks for that, mate.

Yeah, he's a fantastic bowler. When there's anything in the wicket in particular, he's a beautiful bowler, presents the seam and can seam it both ways. He challenged both sides of the bat tonight like he did in that game at Birmingham.

Yeah, if we come up against him again, we're going to need a bit better plan.

Q. You mentioned the plan there; is there anything specifically you can do differently in that situation, or is it a case of saying, too good?

AARON FINCH: I think each individual player will have their own plan, and that's probably not going to change a huge amount. For me personally, I tried to bat out of my crease to try to take that LBW out of play, and yeah, it was just one of those nights where Davy got a decent one early, Smithy toe-ended one and Maxy missed a pickup off his pads which you'd generally expect him to hit.

That can happen in the powerplay when you're looking to be aggressive. Yeah, just blown away though.

Q. Just for the last can you tell us about what's happening with batting first in more than 10 games hurts the team scoring runs? Are you picking up something why it's happening? I'm asking about all the teams, not specifically about Australia, but are you picking up something?

AARON FINCH: I think with the wicket they've been reasonably dry, and then once the lights take effect, even when there hasn't been dew, it feels like the wicket is skidding on a little bit more. That's all it is.

I think teams have probably been a little bit more cautionary in the first six overs when they bat first to try and get through the back end of the innings, but yeah, batting second seems to have been the way to go. The toss has been really important in this tournament so far.

Q. I just wanted to ask you what do you think went wrong in today's game as Australia started pretty well in the tournament, but right now you guys didn't play well in this game? And also there is one thought that Australia are not a good team in T20 as compared to the ODIs. What do you think about that?

AARON FINCH: Well, it wasn't too long ago that we were No. 1 in the world, so I still think that we're a very good team in T20 international cricket. Everyone has got their own opinion, so that doesn't really matter. What matters is results. That's fine if you think that we're a really ordinary side, that's okay.

What was the first part of the question? Oh, we got 125 on a wicket that -- probably after the first five overs the wicket seemed to die down and play a little bit better. The fact that we were three down in them five overs probably just made it -- we just had to hang in the game a little bit longer than we would have liked. We weren't able to be as proactive.

Yeah, whenever you get blown away in the powerplay, it tends to happen a little bit like that.

Q. I just thought I'd ask about your next two games against Bangladesh and the West Indies. Obviously the results didn't really go your way earlier this year. Does that count for anything, and do you kind of look at these two games as basically must-win?

AARON FINCH: Oh, they're definitely must-wins. I think the net run rate took a hammering tonight. Yeah, so we're going to have to be at our best again.

Bangladesh are a very, very good side and so are the West Indies, a lot of firepower in their team, a lot of experience, so yeah, absolutely. It's must-win from now on, but we're looking forward to it.