Victorious Australian skipper Aaron Finch admits playing down the toss factor before Sunday’s final against NZ as he believed he’d call wrongly at some time
Australia players celebrate their win over New Zealand in Dubai on Sunday. Pic/AFP
The triumphant Australian captain Aaron Finch did exactly what Virat Kohli could not do for India.
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Here we are talking not just about lifting the T20 World Cup, but more importantly winning the toss in crucial games. By no stretch of imagination it’s merely the toss that tosses out all the other factors in a cricket game, but it surely gives an advantage to a team, as we have seen during the Australian campaign in this World Cup.
Sunil Gavaskar has famously said that “no doubt it was a half-volley, but it still needs to be put away.” Similarly, no doubt the team have won the toss, but they need to make the most of it by playing top-class cricket.
Thus, nothing can be taken away from the Australian effort, as they went on to win the elusive T20 title, adding to their five 50-overs World Cups and two Champions Trophies.
‘It was just fate’
Finch did finally accept that winning the toss in six of their seven games did give his team an advantage. Talking at the post-final media interaction, the Australian captain said: “It did play a big factor, to be honest. I tried to play it down as much as I could because I thought at some point in the tournament, I’m going to lose a toss and we’ll have to bat first. But it did play a big part. You saw at the end there, the dew factor, the slow balls weren’t holding in the wicket as much. I don’t know how I did it. Maybe it was just fate.”
Kane Williamson also agreed that the toss to some extend had an influence on the outcome, but also had wholesome praise the champions. “Yeah, I mean, it did have an effect. Some dew did come in. But take nothing away from the quality of Australia. They came out in the final and played superbly well. You know, credit goes to them and the way they played their cricket for the last three weeks.”
Special team
Finch said that becoming the first Australian male captain to win the T20 World Cup was indeed a proud moment. “Yeah, it’s awesome, it really is. I think there’s been so much talk about this being the one that’s been elusive to Australia. And to be fair, we probably under-performed in the past, if we are being honest with ourselves. We’ve had some great teams along the way. This team is pretty special. The camaraderie, the way that everyone really cares for each other and looks after each other, looks out for each other; pretty special. So yeah, it’s awesome. That’s brilliant and it’s great for Australian cricket.”
Finch was not too disappointed with his own flop show, saying that it did not matter as long as Australia kept winning: “As for my form, it was poor in the last two games, zero and five. I think nine against West Indies. Yeah, it’s not ideal. But overall, I’ll take no runs and a win any day of the week.”
There is little doubt had the outcome not gone the Aussie way, Finch, like Kohli, would have been facing the music from media as well as fans. Like they say: “Every success hides in it the shortcomings and every failure reveals the large number of scope of improvements.”
Hope the Aussies and Indians have learnt their respective lessons.
Six
No. of T20 World Cup finals out of seven won by the team winning the toss
289
No. of runs scored by David Warner, the most for Australia in any edition of T20 World Cup
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