Twitter reacts to Aaron Finch’s ‘accidental’ masterstroke as Billings smashes reverse-sweep to first slip

Captaincy is a tough art. It can sometimes be gruelling and unforgiving. As a captain, there will be times when you will have to take responsibility for no fault of yours and, on top of that, you are also, all the time, expected to take the bullet for your teammates. Selling your teammates out and throwing them under the bus is usually considered as a major red flag and rightly so. 

But there is also the good side of captaincy where you can end up taking some undeserving credit and Australian skipper Aaron Finch, much to his joy, was at the receiving end of some good fortune at the Ageas Bowl today.

With Adam Zampa having dismissed run-accumulator Dawid Malan and with Sam Billings having just come to the crease, Finch, right before the ninth ball of the leg-spinner’s spell, decided to bring in afirst slip for the new batsman; he slotted himself into the position. The ball was turning quite a bit so the idea behind the move was to have Billings caught at first-slip through an outside edge.

Well, Finch’s masterstroke paid off on that very delivery, albeit in the most unlikely manner imaginable. As Zampa bowled a good-length delivery outside off-stump that turned away from the right-hander, Billings, keen to exploit the gaps on the open off-side, went for an extravagant reverse-sweep. The former CSK chap connected the reverse to perfection, but, to his dismay, smashed it straight to the hands of Finch at first slip. 

Realizing he’d just done an ‘accidental masterstroke’, Finch sported a cheeky grin, almost out of pride. And that, folks, is the secret of success to becoming a great captain: luck.

It happened right after the field change

Was it a commentator's curse?

Nice catch Finch

Poor outing for Sam Billings