The Australian team returned to action in style as the side registered an emphatic 10-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the first T20I of the three-match series on Tuesday. After bowling the home side out on a paltry total of 128, the duo of David Warner (70*) and Aaron Finch (61*) forged an unbeaten stand to take Australia to win with six overs to spare. Josh Hazlewood was the star with the ball for Australia, registering impressive figures of 4/16 in four overs.
Over the past few months, there had been significant concerns over the form of Australia's limited-overs captain Aaron Finch and the right-handed batter would be relived with his unbeaten knock, which came in merely 40 balls. Interestingly, his opening partner Warner has now revealed that he had texted Finch during the 2022 Indian Premier League, where Finch has endured a rough patch.
Finch had played five games for the Kolkata Knight Riders, scoring only 86 runs at an average of 17.20. Warner revealed that he had a conversation with Finch over the latter's technique, and insisted that it looked Finch has worked on it as he spoke about the Australia captain's innings in the Sri Lanka T20I.
“I just said to him not to walk out into the ball,” Warner told reporters after the game, as quoted by Fox Cricket. “Let the ball actually do its work in the air if they want to bowl nice and full.
{{/usCountry}}“I just said to him not to walk out into the ball,” Warner told reporters after the game, as quoted by Fox Cricket. “Let the ball actually do its work in the air if they want to bowl nice and full.
{{/usCountry}}“If you stay still and keep that leg stump line, you’re going to get full contact with the ball and if it swings late, it’s going to go down leg (stump).
“He was probably moving a bit too much, he was walking straight into the line of the ball, and was still moving at the time of the delivery. When you’re a batter you don’t really want to do that unless you’re physically charging.”
He added: “I kept in touch with him. We always do. We always support each other as much as we can. If we see little things we always try to help each other out by sending a message.”
The second T20I of the series takes place later tonight at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.