ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2022

October 22, 2022

Aaron Finch

Sydney Cricket Ground

Australia

Post Match Media Conference

New Zealand - 200/3, Australia - 111

Q. Aaron, how much of a disaster is that given you not only lost, but you lost by a big margin in a very tight tournament?

AARON FINCH: Yeah, that's a big loss in the context of the tournament. We were just totally outplayed in all three facets. New Zealand, they come at us hard with the bat, and their bowling was so disciplined. Their fielders are way fantastic.

It hurts. It hurts our net run rate, like you said, but we're still going to be positive. I think we still back ourselves that we can win four, and you need a little bit of luck along the way.

Q. A lengthy buildup and things going on. Can you put your finger on what went wrong today? Was it just New Zealand were very good that first four overs that went for 50-odd and put you on the back foot?

AARON FINCH: We were on the back foot from the start, I think. We did a really good job to drag it back. We felt as though 200 was maybe not a huge amount over par, and we started to play really nice under the lights. We seemed to be getting better. We backed ourselves to get that done.

I think, when you're chasing a big total and you stumble along the way, you've got to keep going to stay up with the rate. That brings risk, and it didn't go well for us.

Pretty similar to what's been happening the last few games. Every time we start to build a partnership, we just lose one and then have to rebuild. That's always troubling in this format of the game.

Yes, it was always going to be tough once we lost a few, and we just didn't establish them big enough partnerships to put enough pressure back on New Zealand.

Q. How damaging was probably the first few overs especially the way that Finn Allen exploded?

AARON FINCH: He was fantastic. He came at us hard and took us on. We knew that he was going to do that. We planned really well, and he just got off to a flow.

As a batsman, once you get ahead of an opposition and you get ahead of a game, the game can start to slow down for you and you can start dictating a bit. That's what happened today. He got off to a flier and put us on the back foot.

Again, I think we dragged it back really well. I think 10 overs we were at 95. That next four was really good, and probably the next ten was really good.

Like I said, 200 I felt was maybe 10 above what we would have liked to have chased. I think the average par score here is 187 or something like that. Yeah, we still felt we were well and truly in the game.

Q. On the last World Cup you won big against England and stuck to your plans, and it worked out all right. I know you're not a selector, but can you do that again, or do you think they'll have to consider changes?

AARON FINCH: We still feel as though we've got the right structure of team and we've got the right players to win the World Cup. Obviously it's taken a big hit today with the net run rate. When that happens, you need to play well. We need to get better quickly.

Like I said, you need a bit of luck in T20 cricket as well in such a brutal tournament. I think we've still got the right structure of the team, there's no doubt about that.

Whether you go with an extra spinner or an extra quick or something like that, that's the only decision to be made. We're still confident in the 15 we've got, no doubt.

Q. Can you just talk us through the decision not to use Glenn Maxwell as a bowler tonight? Obviously, we saw Sodhi and Santner kind of have a bit of success. Is it just you thought pace was working a bit better?

AARON FINCH: We felt that Marcus Stoinis bowling quite a bit of pace off was working really well.

Devon Conway is a really good player at spin. So while he was in and he faced 25, 30 balls, it can be hard to stop any batter hitting to that short-side. And there wasn't any spin in the wicket that first half of the game, so it felt it would be a little bit bigger of a risk with Devon being able to access that side.

So that was the only reason. We felt as though Stoinis would be able to defend himself a little bit better.

Q. Aaron, you mentioned just before about being a bit of a pattern for your previous games leading into this World Cup and tonight about when you're losing wickets. Is the pattern -- I guess what I'm trying to ask, like are you kind of committing for that feel? You spoke about how you won the basket. Is that an issue here?

AARON FINCH: No, I don't think it's an issue. I think, when you're chasing 10s and you get a little bit behind the rate, I think three or four dot balls, it goes up so quick.

You can't go into a shell in T20 cricket. You have to be able to transfer pressure back on the opposition as quick as you can, and at times that comes with risk. So you have to be prepared to wear the consequences of taking risks at times.

We haven't got it totally right. We've got to look at ourself in that regard. But, yeah, I'm still committed to playing the same way that won us the last World Cup and has given us a bit of a setback here.

Q. Aaron, it seems that from here to win the tournament, there has to be six consecutive wins to actually get there, which sounds quite daunting. But do you take comfort from the fact the team achieved something quite similar to that just 12 months ago?

AARON FINCH: T20 is a momentum game at times. It can be brutal at times. To be able to not look that far ahead is important because you can't win the tournament if you don't win the next game or the next contest, which is the first ball of the next game, if you don't prepare well for the next game.

There's a lot of little things -- well, big things actually. There's a lot of big things that can distract you if you allow them. So the fact that we've lost one game, yes, it's a heavy loss and it hurts our chances, no doubt. We can't dwell on that. We can't change it. All we can do is concentrate on the next game and prepare really well for that against Sri Lanka and see how we go.

We've taken the fate out of our own hands, I think to a point. We need to be ultra positive, ultra aggressive, and I'm sure that we'll all do that.

Q. A lot of questions about the first four or five overs. Do you also think that New Zealand have provided a blueprint to the other teams how to go after your new ball attack? In that case, do you stick with what's happening or change things around? How do you look at it?

AARON FINCH: We'll look at all the stuff around that. Particularly against Sri Lanka as well, we'll analyse them and see what matches up best in that regard.

I think we've seen for a while teams coming harder and harder in the power play. It still takes a good amount of skill to be able to do that against world class bowlers. We still feel as if it's the right team, no doubt. We've got three world class quicks.

Like I said yesterday, on someone's day in T20 cricket, especially someone like Finn who plays quite a kamikaze style game that's high risk and the ball can fly everywhere and he's a seriously talented player, when they get on top of you, it can be hard to stop because you feel like you're always chasing. When you do that, you feel like you drift further and further away from your plans.

But we expect teams to come really hard at us, as I say.

Q. In the prematch I just wanted to ask the same thing that happened today, like the middle order collapse. If one or two fails to do something, how can you trust the middle order that collapsed today? What's your comment on the reasons or the findings that you find these are the particular reasons for the defeat, and how are you taking this defeat ahead through the tournament?

AARON FINCH: With the middle order, the big thing is as a top order we've got to do our job to be able to provide a foundation for them to be able to play in a way that expresses -- well, it best suits them, and they can express themselves that way.

If we go out into the second power play one down, then I think that that makes it easy because the field's out, they can settle into the game. If we're up on the run rate, then there's not as much pressure on them.

Lately we've probably been leaving a little bit too much in the later and middle order.

Q. Hi, Aaron. Anything would you like to change what happened today and what you want to happen in the next match against Sri Lanka? Anything would you like to change in your strategy for the Sri Lanka match that will happen on Tuesday?

AARON FINCH: We'll sit down and go through the preparation for Sri Lanka tomorrow night once we get to Perth.

Our preparation was fine for this game. From our coaching staff and players, everyone was really detailed in how we want to go about it, but very rarely does a T20 game go to plan. We saw that tonight that we were just blown away. Yeah, that's the bottom line.