JOIN US Steven Finn cast his Brisbane ghosts away with a stellar bowling performance that also fetched the paceman his maiden one-day five-wicket haul.
Termed ‘unselectable’ by the then England ODI coach Ashley Giles and sent home on leave from this very venue exactly a year and four days to the day, the 25-year-old blasted out India’s top and middle order to set-up England’s nine-wicket win here at the bouncy Gabba on Tuesday.
“It’s just nice to help England win a game of cricket,” Finn said when reminded of his struggles on the last Ashes tour here. “A lot has happened in the last 12 months and it’s probably pretty much to a day where I went home from that tour of Australia. That corner has been turned, I felt like I turned it a while ago.
All that stuff is in the past now and I am just really looking forward. To take five wickets today was very pleasing for me after the work I have put in. I don’t want to look back now, I just want to look forward,” said Finn after bagging the man of the match award for his returns of 5/33.
Finn maintained he never doubted his ability to make a comeback to the team but felt good to be back to place where he was shipped out without playing a match. “I always thought in the back of my mind that it was possible. But you never know, do you,” he asked. “But to come here and be in the same hotels and get over those hurdles has been good fun and I am enjoying it. I am enjoying my time in Australia. To take wickets today is very good and to win a game is very good as well, so I am very happy where I am at,” he remarked.
Standing over six feet and six inches, Finn used his height to the hilt to extract plenty of bounce from the pitch to trouble the Indian batsmen. “The wicket bounced a lot especially from the end I was bowling from,” the Middlesex bowler said.
“You could bowl a fullish length and it was coming through at waist height which is uncomfortable for anyone. That was partly the way we bowled and partly the wicket. But we used that to our advantage and as a bowling unit, we stuck to our guns very well and made the Indian batsmen come to us which is what we want to be doing,” he explained.
Finn also had a word of sympathy for Indian bowlers, who claimed just one England wicket. “Wicket was helpful for bowlers,” he noted. “It suited taller bowlers. The bounce you can get off a fuller length… That was obviously harder to face for the batsmen.
It is always difficult to go out when you are defending 150. We have got a few guys who are in good touch. And you know it’s always tough in that situation. Again I thought our seam bowlers, we bowled very well today and Moeen Ali also supported us well and gave us a bit of a break in the heat today as well.”