Finch scored 114, but was happy to admit there was something special about the innings produced by Smith, who, he revealed, compared his best shot to Major League BaseballThe best home run hitter.
“He calls himself Barry bonds when he gets into those kinds of moods, “Finch said of Smith.
“It hit him wonderfully, the way he moved, the intention he showed was second to none, that’s as good a one-day tackle as you’ll see.”
An elite way to start the Dettol ODI series, particularly with the bat! Our Australians defeated India by 66 runs for… https://t.co/SgxT487PPt
– Cricket Australia (@CricketAus) 1606481707000
Almost 18,000 fans were in attendance to watch the racing festival at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which launched the long-awaited India Down Under tour.
While Finch was happy with Australia’s 374 count, he described the performance as “uneven” and was less impressed with a series of catches and misses that allowed India to stay in the game.
“You have to take them,” he said, dismissing a suggestion that the players were rusty in their first international home game since March.
“Half of the guys have been playing (Sheffield) Shield and the other half have been playing IPL and training hard during quarantine.
“If we took a chance, we could probably have left the game out of the question a little earlier.”
The costliest miss could have been when Adam Zampa dropped a relatively simple opportunity to eliminate Virat Kohli by one run, though in the end the India captain only added 20 more runs to his tally before Finch caught him with a ball of Josh Hazlewood.
Zampa redeemed himself four for 54 to end any hope of an Indian victory, proving to Finch that he was his country’s best player in white ball cricket.
“Getting the good guys out under pressure is what it’s all about and it certainly did,” Finch said.
The second of the three one-dayers is on the same ground on Sunday.
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