Birmingham: Australian skipper Aaron Finch is disappointed that after doing everything correct and being well prepared for the semi-final challenge, his team could not make it to the final.
“I am very disappointed. We came here today expecting to win. We believed our preparation leading into the tournament and then the momentum we had built-up through the tournament was really important, and we came here feeling good, we’d trained well, we had enough breaks in between games and the guys were fresh enough … so it is very disappointing.”
Finch has no hesitation in admitting that they were totally outplayed by England. “We were just totally outplayed today. The way they set the tone with the ball and getting to 27 for 3 after ten overs was a huge part of the game. It was too hard for us to get back from there.”
In short, everything went wrong for Australia in the semi-final.
Skipper Finch then went on to describe how well prepared his team was, and how they had progressed well in the last 12 months.
“I think we have made a huge progress in the last 12 months. Really proud of everyone involved for how much hard work they put in and how far we have come. But at the same time we came here today to win a semi-final and get ourselves into a position to win another World Cup. So that was really disappointing how it ended, especially to put up probably one of our worst performances overall for the tournament. In the last six months or so, there has been a lot of character shown, but it still hurts.”
Were they caught by surprise with England’s performance that put them under pressure?
“No, not at all, they have done it quite a bit in this tournament. They’ve got bowlers that hit the seam and if there is anything in the wicket, they will certainly get it out of it. Chris Woakes is a world-class bowler; he puts it in the right areas time and time again. Jofra Archer is getting better and better as he’s starting to play a bit more international cricket as well, so definitely wasn’t a surprise.”
The Aussie skipper was not looking for excuses to justify their defeat. “It’s just one of those days when things didn’t go our way. And when you don’t execute your plans well, you get hurt by a really good team. You’ve got to beat everyone in every condition. But things didn’t go for us with a couple of injuries, but that’s not really an excuse. We came here expecting to win, but it wasn’t to be.”
So does Finch think that England could now go on to win the World Cup?
“It will be a hell of a game [final]. New Zealand, we know they fight and scrap for every run. They are dynamic in the field. They are a team that are never out of the contest. England play a high-energy, high-risk game. So I think it will be a great game.”
