Former Australian T20I captain Aaron Finch is of the opinion that Aussie batsmen, including himself, must be smarter in their approach to batting. Finch felt that the Australian batsmen did not apply themselves enough against South Africa’s leg-spinner Imran Tahir on Friday.
The Australian team lost the first T20I of their 3-match series against the Proteas by 3 wickets last night. Tahir was impressive in the middle overs after Australia had got off to a brilliant start as he registered figures of 3/21 in his 4 overs.
"I think there were some times when our ego probably took over a little bit. When you're playing against a quality spinner on a wicket that's assisting him, we probably had to play a little bit smarter. Myself included – if I hit that full toss for six it could be a different scenario, you get Imran (Tahir) on the back foot.
"But we know once he gets his tail up and he's got some new batters to bowl to, he's a hell of a bowler and someone who is tough to get away," Finch said.
Finch also found some positives from the match. Australia were 69/1 after 6 overs while batting and had taken three South African wickets in the Powerplay in the second innings.
"The way that we bowled with the new ball, the way we took wickets in the first six overs. When we go back, our last three games against India we struggled to get wickets at all, let alone at the top of the innings.
"To knock over a couple early was a real positive and allowed us to get into that middle order, who played beautifully in the end. "I think that's one thing that we'll take, a real lot of confidence with the new ball there," he added.
Australia have lost all the four T20I matches they have played in 2016, having lost 0-3 against India just a month ago. But an improved fielding effort from the Australian side saw them draw praise from their former skipper.
"We've been criticised over the last few months about our fielding in all forms of the game. So I think the effort we've been putting in over the last few days and couple of weeks leading up to this tour, it's been huge," he said.
"More fielding than I can remember us doing in the past and I think it's showing dividends. You have games where you drop catches and that's going to happen. At the end of the day nobody means to do it. We're putting in a lot of work at the moment, so hopefully that can continue and we can get the rewards there."
The 2nd T20I is scheduled for Sunday at Johannesburg.
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