T20 World Cup 2021 | Would love to keep things in our control, says Aaron Finch as semi-final race stiffens
Aaron Finch has said that Australia love to keep things under their control as the race to semi-finals intensified in the Group 1 following his team's thumping 8-wicket win again Bangladesh on Thursday. While England have virtually qualified, Australia and South Africa have won 3 matches each.
The race for the second semi-finalist from Group 1 intensified ever since South Africa registered a huge win against Bangladesh on Tuesday. The Mahmudullah-led side was bowled out for a paltry total of 84 runs on a seam-friendly Abu Dhabi pitch. The Temba Bavuma-led team chased down the target in just 13.3 overs to boost their Net Run rate to 0.742. Before this game, Australia was handed a heavy defeat by their arch-rivals England resulting in a massive dip in their NRR.
However, the Australian side did amends on Thursday and tharshed Bangladesh by 8 wicket after chasing a 74-run target in just 6.2 overs. Adam Zampa took five wickets in the match as Australia leapfrogged South Africa to grab the second spot with a poistive NRR of 1.031. While Australia face West Indies in their last Super 12s match on Saturday, South Africa face unbeaten England, who have virtually qualified for the semi-finals after four straight wins.
Ahead of Saturday's day game, Aaron Finch has said that Australia would not like to depend on the results of the other teams and try to register a thumping win over the Kieron Pollard-led team which crashed out of the showpiece event on Thurday.
"Behind the scenes we made a conscious effort not to talk about net run-rate and things like that," Finch told reporters on Friday.
"We'd love to keep things in our control. If you start hoping other teams win or lose, it clouds your judgement and vision. We'll stick to our guns because we know that's good enough when we get it right. West Indies is such a dangerous side ... Obviously with them being out of the competition now they've got nothing to lose, which can also be a really dangerous spot," he added.
The 34-year-old praised Adam Zampa saying that Zampa has been very consistent in white-ball cricket over the couple of years. With the best bowling figues of 5 for 19 in the tournament, the leg-spinner is sitting on the third spot in the list of highest wicket-takers. The 29-year-old has 10 wickets from 4 matches.
"He's someone who's been so consistent over the last couple of years in both white ball formats of the game. He often bowls maybe sometimes one (over) in the powerplay but then he'll bowl straight after the powerplay. He puts so much pressure on opposition. What's been the most important thing is he gets very, very good players out consistently," Finch stated.
The Australian captain also praised pace spearhead Mitchell Starc saying that Starc has the ability to pick wickets at any time of the innings.
"His record in all formats of the game is unbelievable, but particularly in T20 cricket, he is someone who has got so many skills. The ability to take wickets all through the innings with the new ball, at the death in particular, he is as good as anyone in the world," Finch said of his pace spearhead.
"So absolutely he is a strike weapon that we love to use at any stage we feel we can exploit someone or there is a little weakness, or you want to keep pressing through the middle overs. He is the one you turn to most times," he concluded.
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