While the Australian T20I skipper Aaron Finch is hopeful on the team for the final of the ongoing T20I tri-series in Zimbabwe, Australian pacer Andrew Tye believes that the Australian team has saved their best performance for that final game.
After finishing on the top of the points table (12 points) by winning three matches, Australia will face Pakistan in the final on Sunday (July 8) at Harare. Pakistan also won the three matches and had same no.of points (12 points) but they had the lesser run-rate.
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After losing against Pakistan on Thursday, Australia clinched a thrilling victory in their last league-stage game against Zimbabwe on Friday. After restricting the hosts to 151/9 (20 overs), Australia had a weak start but Travis Head (48 runs) and Glenn Maxwell (56 runs) led the team to victory.
However, due to some late wickets, that game went to the last over, where Australia had to score 7 runs in 6 balls and Marcus Stoinis and Ashton Agar reached the target with one ball remaining.
Talking about his team in the Friday’s game, Australian T20I skipper Aaron Finch said, “I thought they bowled well towards the end and shows the value of having a set batsman at the end. I think it is important to get some time in the middle, get batting rhythm. They are hitting the balls well in training but nothing compares to match practices.”
Finch also praised his bowlers’ efforts in the Friday’s game and he is also hopeful for the final of this tri-series.
Finch said, “The bowling was very good, we restricted Zimbabwe 15-20 runs short of what they’d have liked. We’ve been working up so far and hopefully we peak in the final.”
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Aussie pacer Andrew Tye, who is the most wicket-taker (12 wickets) in this series as he has taken three wickets each in all the four games, feels that he is lucky in this series and also believes that they will play their best game in the final.
Tye said, “It’s something I’ve been working on, taking wickets at crucial times. I’ve got lucky in this series, taking wickets in the death and stopping teams when they want more runs. Good that we got the win today, hopefully as a team we get a win on Sunday too.
“I just try to adapt to every batsman because they’re all different. We’ve had a few troubles but I think we’re saving our best for the last.”
On the other hand, Zimbabwe skipper Hamilton Masakadza was happy with his team’s efforts in the last game and he is confident about the better performances in the next matches.
Masakadza said after the game, “We fought well and took it to the end, which was good. The wicket played slower than expected and we couldn’t quite kick on in the end even though we had a good partnership in the middle. We spoke about coming back from the first two games and the guys expressing themselves and I think Mire did that brilliantly. We are on the up now and I’m sure we’ll keep getting better.”
Zimbabwe will now play 5-match home ODI series against Pakistan, starting from July 13.
