Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket PlayersFinn Allen has no plans of using Mongoose bat despite working with Matthew Hayden at ETPL: 'Need more wood’
Finn Allen represents Glasgow Cosmic, a franchise which Matthew Hayden co-owns. Here's what the Kiwi opener said in a conversation with HT Digital.
Prefer HTon Google
The European T20 league is the latest on the circuit, but with its inaugural season itself, the tournament has taken the world by storm. The popularity is rising with the minute, and the biggest reason has to be the involvement of some of the biggest names in the sport, such as Finn Allen, Glenn Maxwell, Faf du Plessis, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Devon Conway, among others. The competition has been top-notch, and the ETPL is now nearing its business end.
Speaking of Allen, he represents the Glasgow Cosmic in the ETPL and has played 4 matches for the franchise, scoring 45 runs. Speaking of the team, Cosmic is co-owned by former Australian batter Matthew Hayden, who is also serving as the head coach.
However, the side has been unable to spring together consistent performance in the tournament, sitting in fifth place in the six-team competition with just two wins to their name from 10 matches.
Speaking about the tournament, Allen stated that it has been a wonderful experience for him to play in the ETPL despite the team not gelling in the first season. He also added that he had a lot of fun playing in The Hague and Dublin.
“It's obviously, you know, a pretty cool part of the world to be playing cricket in The Hague and Dublin. So it's been a while since I've been here. We had a tour in 2022, I think. So yeah, it's been really cool. Again, it's been cool to mix with different people, and yeah, the experience as a whole has been enjoyable,” said Allen in an interview with HT Digital.
Conversation with Hayden
The ETPL, whose primary aim is to promote the game in European countries, also gave Allen the chance to work with one of the best openers ever to play the sport. And the New Zealand opener made full use of the opportunity, picking the brains of Hayden at every opportunity.
“Haydos and I actually had a few really good conversations, at IPL and stuff. So I was, you know, really excited to come over here and work with him. And yeah, we've had some ongoing chats. I've obviously only been here for half the tournament, so I haven't had as much time as I would have liked. But yeah, we've had a few really good conversations just around, how I can keep improving, getting better and those sorts of things. So no, it's been good,” said the 27-year-old.
Back in the day, Hayden made the ‘Mangoose’ bat a household name when he used it in the IPL while playing for the Chennai Super Kings. The speciality of the willow is that it has a short blade and a long handle designed for explosive power-hitting. However, this is precisely the reason Allen doesn't want to follow in the footsteps of Haydos, as he likes more wood on his bat.
“No, I need as much wood as I can possibly get for me to hit it. Yeah, no, it hasn't quite come across to my desk,” said Allen when asked whether he would look to use the Mongoose willow.
Rising scores across competitions
The past two years have seen scores in T20s skyrocketing across leagues, with 250 and 300 becoming par for the course. In the IPL itself, scores over 200 have increased ever since the introduction of the impact player rule. However, Allen believes that every tournament comes with its own set of challenges and high scores for now are just an IPL thing.
“Every tournament's kind of different, right? Like, I think you saw the Hundred I played in recently; the scores weren't as high as that. It's probably IPL; they're consistently pretty high in wickets and in the size of the grounds. I think every tournament poses different challenges. You've seen the scores here,” said Allen.
“There's only been one over 200 in this tournament. So conditions obviously play a big part in that. And yeah, I'd say they're potentially a little bit more bowler-friendly over here. But I think as a batter, that's also nice because you get posed with different challenges and things like that. So I suppose that's the exciting thing about playing in different tournaments. You're always challenged in a different way,” said Allen.
