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Personal form gives captain Finch fewer sleepless nights

Personal form gives captain Finch fewer sleepless nights
March 29, 2019

SHARJAH (92 News) - Aaron Finch is riding on a high, both as opener and Australia captain. While he came within 10 runs of becoming the first Australian batsman to hit three one-day international centuries in a row, his team are set to go into the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019 with series wins against India and Pakistan behind them.

This marks a stark turnaround from even a few months ago, when Finch's place in the side was under question, and Australia were struggling without Steve Smith and David Warner in their side. Finch, who has scores of 116, 153* and 90 in the three matches against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates so far, admitted that he's finally slightly relaxed. "Winning is the most important thing and being able to contribute to that with the bat is obviously important, and it makes you feel better," he said ahead of the fourth ODI on Friday, 29 March. "You don't lose as much sleep worrying about a lot of the stuff that occupies your mind as a captain [and] really worrying about your own form, your own technique, things that could go wrong. At times you get into quite a negative frame of mind when things aren't going your way." The "negative" mindset is something he's mentioned before, especially in the context of his poor run against India in the Test series as well as the ODIs that followed. The Indian attack exposed his struggles against the moving ball and he was dropped from the Test side. However, when Australia toured India, he finally broke through in the third ODI, which began Australia's run of wins, making 93. https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1111379941864566784
"India – they were probably all over me for a couple of games there in the Tests. Then the ODI series in Australia as well," he admitted. "So to get some runs at the back end of that series in India, get a 90 and contribute with a couple of other starts was nice. "It never takes the pressure off, because you're always wanting to lead from the front in every game and have that match-winning contribution. [But] it's been nice to set us up for a couple of really big match-winning partnerships."