Dubai, Australia opener Matt Renshaw copped a blow to the helmet when fielding at short leg during Australia’s tour game against Pakistan A, but Aaron Finch said he was in ‘good spirits’.
The incident took place when Renshaw was trying to evade a powerful pull shot played off Nathan Lyon’s bowling on Sunday, and Australia requested to have him replaced on the field with Marnus Labuschange, which Pakistan A agreed to.
But the opener appears to be recovering well. “He’s okay, obviously a pretty heavy knock,” said Aaron Finch. “He’s been with the medical staff all afternoon, but he seems in really good spirits and they’re confident that his headaches and things like that are subsiding pretty quickly.”
The blow meant that Renshaw didn’t get to have a knock, but three Australian batsmen – Finch, Shaun Marsh and Mitchell Marsh – scored half-centuries to make the warm-up opportunity count, helping Australia to 207/2 in response to Pakistan A’s 278.
Finch was dismissed for a patient 54 before the brothers Shaun (54 n.o.) and Mitchell (53 n.o.) stitched an unbroken 103-run stand for the third wicket.
For 31-year-old Finch, it was his first innings in the Australian whites, though not in a Test match, and he displayed signs of having the credentials to do well in Tests. He said the key was to play his natural game while also making some adjustments as per the conditions.
“Batting was nice to get away after training for best part of the week and doing the hard yards,” he said after batting 91 balls in the Dubai heat.
“It’s about playing my natural game, which is quite aggressive. I think trying to put pressure back on the opposition. In these kind of conditions if you’re going nowhere and the scoreboard stands still for a long time, you could be a sitting duck,” Finch said,”It’s still about playing my natural game and temper that slightly with the conditions and with the wicket. So I think it’s important we keep playing the conditions as well as we can,” he said.
With the ball, Lyon continued to impress, adding three scalps to his five from day one to finish with 8/103.
“Nathan Lyon with eight wickets was outstanding. The way he bowled yesterday on a wicket that had a little bit of turn on day one was outstanding and eight wickets is a brilliant performance. The shape that he bowled and the pace that he bowled was really impressive,” said Finch.
