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Durham bowled Scotland out for 91 before wrapping up a seven-wicket Yorkshire Bank 40 triumph at Chester-le-Street, as the visitors’ miserable form in the competition continued

16-Jun-2013
ScorecardDurham bowled Scotland out for 91 before wrapping up a seven-wicket Yorkshire Bank 40 triumph at Chester-le-Street, as the visitors’ miserable form in the competition continued. It was seven losses in seven for the Scots, while Durham continue to look well-placed in Group B after recording their fourth win.Durham needed just 12.5 overs to wrap this one up as five Scotland batsman went for ducks. Captain Preston Mommsen and ex-Warwickshire player Calum MacLeod both went first ball and the only resistance came from New Zealander Tom Latham.The left-handed opener made 30 before he was sixth out, lofting a catch to extra cover when clearly in danger of running out of partners. He had seen three wickets go down in five balls with the total on 39. MacLeod gloved a leg-side catch to wicketkeeper Phil Mustard, Mommsen hooked straight to long leg and ex-Durham player Moneeb Iqbal was bowled by Mark Wood.The rot set in as early as the third over when Freddie Coleman shaped to drive Graham Onions and edged to Mustard. All went reasonably well while Richie Berrington was helping to add 30 for the second wicket. But then he skied Wood to long leg, where Ryan Pringle ran in to hold a good catch. Onions bowled straight through his eight overs to take three for 26 and there were also three wickets each for Wood and Paul Collingwood, who took the last three in nine balls.Scotland were all out in 23.3 overs and Durham knocked off the runs quickly, losing three wickets more through carelessness than any penetration from the quartet of medium pacers the Scots employed.Gordon Goudie followed up his unbeaten 14 by persuading Mustard to loft a catch to mid-off, while MacLeod had Mark Stoneman lbw for 22. Scott Borthwick edged Berrington to slip, but Ben Stokes went in at 67 for 3 and hit an unbeaten 17 off 10 balls to see his side home.

Yorkshire were sent spinning to a 25-run Friends Life t20 defeat by Nottinghamshire in front of a 7,100 crowd at Headingley.

21-Jul-2013
ScorecardDavid Hussey led Notts’ innings•Getty ImagesYorkshire were sent spinning to a 25-run Friends Life t20 defeat by Nottinghamshire in front of a 7,100 crowd at Headingley. The result pushed Nottinghamshire to the top of the North Group with 10 points but it left Yorkshire next to the bottom with just five points and virtually without hope of qualifying for the quarter-finals.Chasing a target of 156, Yorkshire looked to be in with a good chance as Joe Sayers and Dan Hodgson put on 67 in 10 overs for the second wicket, but left-arm spinners Samit Patel and Graeme White soon broke through with some fine bowling to knock the stuffing out of the home side.Patel finished with 2 for 19 from his four overs while White also claimed two crucial wickets at a cost of only 18 runs as Yorkshire limped from 75 for 1 to 130 for 6.With skipper Andrew Gale rested as a precaution having returned to Championship cricket last week following time out with a broken hand, Adam Lyth was recalled to open the innings with Sayers. But off the final ball of the first over from left-arm paceman Harry Gurney, Lyth gave a gentle catch to Patel at cover to bring in Hodgson, who has been in good form in the competition.Sayers hit former team-mate Ajmal Shahzad hard through extra cover for four and the same bowler suffered again as Hodgson struck consecutive balls for cover boundaries. There were further boundaries for Sayers off Gurney and Ian Butler to propel Yorkshire to 49 for 1 at the end of the six overs of Powerplay and at that stage they were well on course to win.But momentum quickly shifted Nottinghamshire’s way when Sayers drove Patel straight into the hands of Steven Mullaney at long on to depart for 38 from 30 balls with five fours. It became 90 for 3 as Hodgson, on 32 with four boundaries, was lured from his crease by White and Chris Read whipped off the bails.Yorkshire became increasingly desperate and Andy Hodd fell lbw to White before danger man Gary Ballance was brilliantly caught by White on the midwicket boundary off Patel to make a Nottinghamshire triumph inevitable.Put in to bat on a cloudy afternoon, Nottinghamshire lost Michael Lumb in Ryan Sidebottom’s first over and Alex Hales had his off-stump sent spinning by Liam Plunkett with the score on 33 in the fifth over. Yorkshire perked up even further when James Taylor hit Plunkett straight to Adil Rashid at midwicket but Patel batted fluently for his 46 from 37 balls with four fours and two sixes.But it was David Hussey who took the visitors to a respectable score with a solid unbeaten 52 from 48 deliveries – including four fours and a six – while Butler did late damage with 18 from nine deliveries, hitting a four and taking sixes off both Sidebottom and acting captain Azeem Rafiq.Apart from two expensive overs from Jack Brooks, Yorkshire bowled tidily and it was their batsmen who proved they were not up to the task.

Lancashire moved closer to locking down the County Championship Division Two title by wrapping up a nine-wicket victory over Worcestershire at New Road.

25-Aug-2013
ScorecardLuis Reece eased Lancashire home•Getty ImagesLancashire moved closer to locking down the County Championship Division Two title by wrapping up a nine-wicket victory over Worcestershire at New Road.A fifth win in the last six games has put Glen Chapple’s table-topping team 34 points clear of Northamptonshire and 65 ahead of Essex, having played a game more than the third-placed county.Although Worcestershire began the last day only 12 runs ahead with five wickets standing, they did their best to delay the Lancashire bandwagon before bowing to the inevitable. After resuming at 166 for 5, the home side finally capitulated for 241 and Lancashire cleared off their target of 88 with more than half a day to spare.Chapple removed the biggest obstacle when his ninth ball of the morning accounted for Worcestershire’s show-stealer, Moeen Ali. With scores of 104 and 109, the England Lions batsman emulated Graeme Hick, the last Worcestershire player to score two centuries in a match on the New Road ground, against Essex in 2006.In six home Championship matches this season Moeen has scored 779 runs at an average of 111.29 and in his last six completed innings at New Road he has made a double hundred, three centuries and two fifties.For Worcestershire to have seriously stretched Lancashire, more was needed fromMoeen than the eight runs he added on the last morning. After taking one more boundary off Kyle Hogg – in all he hit 12 fours and three sixes – he edged Chapple to Gareth Cross for the first of four successive catches by the wicketkeeper.The lower order battled on as best as they could but Hogg landed two blows by removing Jack Shantry and Joe Leach in successive overs. Finally it was over to Tom Smith to polish off the last two wickets in the space of six balls. Graeme Cessford thin-edged an expansive drive and Ben Cox was leg-before for 11.Cessford was quickly back in action with the new ball and with the last delivery of his second over had Paul Horton caught at point. The light became a problem as Cessford banged the ball in short of a length and with the score on 42 for 1 the umpires took the teams off for 10 minutes.On the resumption Luis Reece continued his impressive introduction to Championship cricket, reaching his fourth half-century in a row with a straight six off Moeen. He also had 10 fours in an unbeaten 56 in 51 balls when Ashwell Prince, who made 19 in a stand of 71, hit the winning boundary off Shantry.

Misbah-ul-Haq wanted Younis Khan to reach his double-century before calling an end to Pakistan’s second innings but said the senior batsman would have been fine even if the declaration had come earlier

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Sep-2013Misbah-ul-Haq wanted Younis Khan to reach his double-century before calling an end to Pakistan’s second innings but said the senior batsman would have been fine even if the declaration had come before the individual landmark.Misbah declared late on day four as soon as Younis hit Prosper Utseya for six to move from 194 to 200, having lifted Pakistan from 169 for 5 to an imposing 419 for 9 to set Zimbabwe a target of 342. The hosts were dismissed for 120 on the final morning, with Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman taking four wickets each.”I wanted Younis to get to 200 because he really deserved that,” Misbah said. “I told him how many overs I was going to give him. He was (on) 188 at the time and said, ‘no problem, you can declare as soon as you want’. He is a team man and he would not have said anything if I declared before he got to 200 but I wanted him to get it.”Younis was helped by No 7 Adnan Akmal and last man Rahat Ali in building Pakistan’s position, and he acknowledged their roles. “When you’ve played a lot of Test cricket, you know when to block and when to score runs,” Younis said. “I knew that if I batted for most of the day, I could take the lead to almost 300. I had a good partnership with Rahat Ali at the end. He helped me get to 200.”I think he (Adnan) is a much improved player. I just kept saying to him ‘play straight because even though their bowlers are doing well, soon you will get some runs.’ Quickly, he had 20 or 30 and when you have that you can go on and get more. That’s how Test cricket is.”Younis’ unbeaten 200 came after he fell for 3 in the first innings, in his first match for Pakistan in more than five months. He said it was a difficult proposition playing low-ranked teams such as Zimbabwe. “It’s very hard because if you do well everybody expects you to do well and if you don’t do well, people ask you why you didn’t do well,” Younis said. “At the end of the day, it is Test cricket and they are playing it because they are good. Look at it, for the first three-and-half days, Zimbabwe won every session and then we just won one or two sessions at the end and we won the match.”Despite taking a 78-run first-innings lead, Zimbabwe were unable to press their advantage and collapsed inside 40 overs on the final day. Younis held the home side’s inexperience responsible for their capitulation. “Teams like Zimbabwe need more Test cricket,” Younis said. “They need to get more experience because that is the only way they’ll know how to go on and win matches. That’s the same for everyone. That’s how you learn, when you play more Test cricket.”Misbah said he knew Zimbabwe would compete but was confident in Pakistan’s ability to recover lost ground. “I expected a fight but I must say they really gave us a tough time,” Misbah said. “They were in control for much of the match but I knew my team is capable of fighting back. I thought as long as we had 100 to 105 overs, we could bowl them out.”As it turned out, Pakistan needed just 46.4 overs to run through Zimbabwe, with Ajmal taking his match tally to 11 wickets. “He is a world-class bowler,” Misbah said. “Without him, I’d say we couldn’t even think of playing. He is a big advantage for us.”With Ajmal in such form and Rehman contributing in the second innings as well, Pakistan did not require the offspin of Mohammad Hafeez. “He is definitely fit for bowling,” Misbah said of the Pakistan Twenty20 captain. “He passed a fitness test before this match. But we wanted to use our frontline spinners and that’s why I didn’t use him.”

Sunil Narine, the West Indies offspinner, has signed with the South African franchise, Cape Cobras, for the domestic Twenty20 competition

Firdose Moonda01-Oct-2013Sunil Narine, the West Indies offspinner who is currently ranked the world’s No. 1 Twenty20 bowler, has signed with the South African franchise, Cape Cobras, for the domestic Twenty20 competition.Narine will be the frontline spinner in an outfit that will be packed with international stars including Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Robin Peterson, Vernon Philander and Rory Kleinveldt, and is no doubt part of their plans to qualify for next year’s CLT20. The Cobras last played in the lucrative event two years ago in 2011 and finished at the bottom of the points table last season.They aim to turn that around this season, by making use of as many high-profile players as possible “Most of our internationals should be available for the twenty-over competition and we asked ourselves the question, who would best complement them? ” Paul Adams, Cobras coach said. “Sunil’s strength is that you can bring him on to bowl at pressure moments in the innings and he still strikes and keeps the run rate down.”South Africa’s domestic twenty-over competition is scheduled to take place between January 8 and February 9. It is a window period in which the national players will be available, especially since their series against India is likely to be curtailed.India were due to play in South Africa until January 19 but have scheduled a trip to New Zealand which starts on that day. Australia’s series in South Africa only begins on February 12 which will ensure the national players can appear in what CSA have promised will be a much higher-profile domestic T20 competition, which they hope will include some big signings.Graham Onions has been contracted to the Dolphins for the summer and Narine has become the second international name to join a South African side. Narine shot to fame in the 2011 Champions League and has enjoyed big success in two IPL seasons that followed, including a Player-of-the-season performance in in 2012. He was also an integral part of West Indies’ World Twenty20 title victory last year, taking nine wickets and conceding only 5.63 runs an over.Narine is currently playing in the CLT20 in India for his native Trinidad & Tobago, who are awaiting their final group match against Chennai Super Kings on October 2, in order to ascertain whether or not they will progress through to the semi-finals. “I look forward to working with Paul Adams and the guys in the new year. South Africa has one of the toughest leagues in the world, so it will be a big test for me. The Cobras look to have a serious squad of players and hopefully I can contribute,” he said.

Matt Prior might have been standing in for the first time as an England captain, but he proved in Perth that he has already mastered the art of positive thinking

David Hopps02-Nov-2013Matt Prior might have been standing in for the first time as an England captain, but he proved in Perth that he has already mastered the art of positive thinking. After England’s uncomfortable start to the Ashes tour against a Western Australia scratch side, he dubbed pretty much everything as “fantastic”.”The batters batted fantastically,” Prior said, a conclusion drawn from the hundreds compiled by Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott, rather than a final-day collapse against the second new ball which saw England lose seven wickets for 61 with Prior himself, Gary Ballance and Ben Stokes all falling cheaply in their first knock of the Ashes tour.Neither did Prior accept the general conclusion in the media that none of England’s trio of fast bowlers had made much of a case for inclusion in the first Test in Brisbane. They had taken a mauling on the first day, but Prior preferred to reflect upon a steadier performance against the WA Chairman’s XI second time around. “Today the big guys I thought were fantastic,” he said.Boyd Rankin, in particular, was presented by Prior as “fantastic all day”. Prior was so determined to maintain England’s spirits and sing the tune of Captain Fantastic that it would have been no surprise to discover that the Brown Dirt Cowboy was writing the lyrics.”I think the fast bowlers improved through the three days and got through that bit of rustiness,” he said. “Steven Finn bowled a long spell there, and certainly the last four or five overs he was really hitting his straps again, hitting a great area, and his pace was up.”Boyd Rankin I thought was fantastic all day. A bloke with such height and good pace and bounce on these wickets could be a pretty useful weapon. Tremlett got better and better and got more rhythm as the game went on.”A three-day affair on a sluggish surface against what, by and large, was a WA 2nd XI might be regarded as possessing only limited value. Not so. “I think we got a huge amount from the game,” he said. “I’m very happy sat here after the last three days. In all departments, we gradually got better throughout the game.”From a fielding and bowling point of view, the first day obviously wasn’t great. But there are reasons for that – a bit of rustiness – and that’s why we’re here four weeks early: to make sure we have the games and to clear the cobwebs before the first Test match.”Prior had a lean Ashes series with the bat and is anxious to remedy that before Brisbane. But anxiety was not allowed to permeate his air of bullish confidence. “If I scored runs in the nets I reckon I would probably have 100 hundreds at the moment,” he said. “I’ve been hitting it brilliantly, moving well, feeling really good. If I went 0, 0, 0, 0 in all these warm up matches but got a hundred in the first Test, I’d bite your arm off.”His PR exercise achieved, he knew it was time for him to step down from his temporary leadership role, with Alastair Cook fit again to resume command against Australia A in Hobart next week. The handover of the baton passed without mishap. “It’s been good fun to be in charge and have a little bit of power,” he said. “I really enjoyed it, but back to Cooky.”

Mahela Jayawardene confirmed his fine touch ahead of New Zealand’s limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka with an 88-ball 96, but could not prevent a tense last-ball win for Sri Lanka A against a Board XI

Andrew Fidel Fernando07-Nov-2013
ScorecardUpul Tharanga hit 96 to set up Sri Lanka A’s chase, but is not in the squad for the New Zealand series•AFPMahela Jayawardene confirmed his fine touch ahead of New Zealand’s limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka, but could not prevent a tense win for Sri Lanka A, over the Board XI, at the Sinhalese Sports Club. Jayawardene struck 96 from 88, after he had hit 84 in the first practice match, but it was Upul Tharanga’s 96 and Seekkuge Prasanna’s 41 not out from 30 late in Sri Lanka A’s innings, that proved to be the definitive batting contributions of the match. Neither, however, are in the Sri Lanka squad for the series.Spin prospered on Thursday, after the fast bowlers had reaped the best rewards in the first match. Left-arm spinner Chaturanga de Silva took 4 for 41 for Sri Lanka A, before offspinner Sachithra Senanayake took 3 wickets for the Board XI. No other bowlers managed more than one scalp, as both teams scored at close to six runs an over.Upul Tharanga had set up the chase, scoring at just better than run-a-ball as Dinesh Chandimal contributed a more leisurely half-century, but Sri Lanka A still had 68 runs to get from 55 balls, when Tharanga’s demise brought Prasanna to the crease.Rain earlier in the innings had cost the match six overs and reduced the target from 296 to 251, and though Prasanna had allrounders batting with him in the final stages, he took the lion’s share of the strike and scored most of the runs. His 41 featured two sixes and five fours, and the winning runs came off the last ball of the innings.Earlier, Jayawardene arrived in the fifth over of the Board Xi’s innings after Kusal Perera and Kumar Sangakkara had fallen cheaply, and steadied the innings alongside Dimuth Karunaratne, who hit 39 from 54, as he trialled once again for the position of opener in the New Zealand series. Jayawardene’s biggest partnership was to be with Ashan Priyanjan however, as the pair put on 81 for the fifth wicket – Priyanjan making 46 of those runs. De Silva bowled Jayawardene four runs shy of the batsman’s 18th List A ton, but a 16-ball 31 from tail-ender Ishan Jayaratne ensured the Board XI finished strongly, at 295 for 8.The three-match ODI series against New Zealand begins in Hambantota, on Sunday.

A lacklustre display by England in Alice Springs has added to the impression of an Ashes tour veering off course

George Dobell in Alice Springs30-Nov-2013
Scorecard0:00

‘Finn and Rankin unlikely to play in Adelaide’

It says much for England’s lacklustre performance in Alice Springs that there were times when it was hard to tell which team was the No. 3-ranked Test side and which was populated with players as green as the lush outfield at Traeger Park.Perhaps it was natural that England produced such a performance lacking intensity in this match. This two-day game was, in reality, little more than a practice session and some of England’s players might have been understandably reluctant to fully extend themselves a few days ahead of the second Test.But there were several players for whom this game presented an opportunity. The fringe batsmen were fighting to earn the final place in the top six; the fast bowlers were fighting for the position of third seamer. Even Monty Panesar might have felt he had a chance of staking a claim for a place in the side.Yet few players made persuasive cases for their advancement and, as England head into the second Test on Thursday, they do so with an uncomfortable number of awkward questions to answer. Thrashed in Brisbane and shocked by the departure of Jonathan Trott, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that England’s tour is veering alarmingly off course.Whereas in 2010-11 they had a settled team – Steven Finn was the only man dropped during that series – this time they have doubts about two of the top three, their No. 6 and their third seamer. For a side that prides itself on planning and preparation, that is an uncomfortable place to be.A couple of issues were resolved, though. On the evidence of this game, it seems most unlikely that Finn or Boyd Rankin – both of whom were out-bowled by 21-year-old Simon Mackin, a man without a first-class appearance – will be considered for Adelaide.Tim Bresnan will be assessed by England’s medical staff on Sunday and, unless his readiness is thought to be beyond reasonable doubt, Chris Tremlett will surely remain the third seamer in the second Test. Both Rankin and Finn bowled themselves out of contention in Alice Springs. Finn, a shadow of the menacing fast bowler that he has shown glimpses he can be, may well have bowled himself out of contention for the series.Boyd Rankin picked up one wicket but failed to stake a convincing claim for inclusion in the second Test•Getty ImagesHaving wasted the new ball through a surfeit of short balls – the Chairman XI’s openers were hardly required to play a shot in the first 40 minutes of play – the pair were thrashed around the ground by 20-year-old tailender, James Muirhead. On a brutally hot day, England looked weary and fed-up some time before the Chairman’s XI earned a 42-run first innings lead.It would be a huge risk to pick Panesar, too. While his bowling improved after a rusty start – his first delivery for England since the Auckland Test in March was a full toss – he looked nervous and fallible in the field. By the time he bowled Steven Cazzulino with a beauty through the gate, Ian Bell rated his bowling “back to his best” but, after Panesar’s experiences in recent months and Trott’s in recent days, to plunge him into the unforgiving atmosphere of an Ashes Test would verge on the reckless.At least Graeme Swann enjoyed a decent day. Against batsmen determined to attack him from the start, he claimed three wickets to failed attempts to hit him over the top and then had 16-year-old Jake Doran, who had earlier pulled Panesar to the boundary, taken at short-leg.A couple of the Chairman’s XI players will have done their reputations no harm. Steven Cazzulino and Ashton Turner were patient, Josh Lalor – a player of Aboriginal descent – attacked effectively, while Marcus Harris, who punished Rankin and Finn with a series of cuts and pulls, looked a fine player who could go on to enjoy a decent career.But Mackin is the one to watch. He dismissed Joe Root with a brute of a ball that reared from just back of a length and took the glove on its way to the keeper. It was a wicket that exposed not just the poor length of England’s bowlers, but the trouble Root has in dealing with the pace and bounce of these wickets. Gary Ballance was also beaten outside off stump by Mackin and looked relieved to reach stumps, though Michael Carberry acquitted himself pretty well.This match was never just about the result. And, in terms of spreading the reach of the game, it should probably be deemed a success: nearly 3,500 spectators attended and the England players took the time to coach groups of local kids. In terms of preparation for the second Test, however, England found little to reassure them.

Simon Katich played a vintage hand to guide his team, Perth Scorchers, to a six-wicket win over the still winless Sydney Thunder

Alex Malcolm03-Jan-2014
ScorecardMitchell Marsh and Simon Katich added 86 for the fourth wicket•Getty ImagesThe legend of Simon Katich grows. Katich was batting with a broken finger, but a batsman with such a tough reputation was not about to miss the chance of a match-winning innings against the hapless, and still winless, Sydney Thunder.The Scorchers’ captain played a vintage hand to guide his team to a six-wicket win after entering at first drop in the fourth over with only 20 on the board, and with Thunder beginning to believe they could defend their score of 6 for 157 and claim their first win in 17 matches.The 38-year-old hit seven fours and cleared the boundary twice during his match-winning 75. He survived a close lbw shout on 27 but was flawless thereon, playing both cross-bat shots and drives off the pace bowlers to either side of the wicket, as well as sweeps off the spinners. His best stroke was a sensational lofted cover-drive for six from the offspin of Tillakaratne Dilshan.With support from Mitchell Marsh, Katich guided the chase to within 11 runs of victory before mis-timing a low full toss straight to mid-off. Marsh then ensured the Scorchers reached their target with four balls to spare. The Thunder were luckless again, following on from their ill fortune against the Melbourne Stars.The Thunder’s batting innings started with great promise only to fall in a heap as Dilshan and Daniel Hughes departed within five balls of each other, after an electric 38-run stand. It was left to Mike Hussey and Eoin Morgan to mount yet another rescue mission. Hussey was booed to the crease by the fickle Scorchers fans and cheered on his way back to the pavilion after falling to a great catch from Craig Simmons for just 13.Morgan, in his last game before reporting for England duties, picked up the slack for his captain. He played magnificently for 48 from 30 balls but was run-out in bizarre fashion. He dived for his crease after driving back to the bowler and Marsh’s throw struck the stumps at the precise moment Morgan’s bat bounced in the air despite being well over the line.The Thunder batsmen found Brad Hogg was almost unplayable as the left-arm chinaman bowler got Kurtis Patterson through the gate and Ryan Carters around his legs with a wrong ‘un to finish with 2 for 20 from four overs. Jason Floros produced a late flourish with a well-crafted 37 not out to push the total to 157.

Aaron Finch’s 121 against England in Melbourne has secured his place in the ODI side for the foreseeable future

Brydon Coverdale13-Jan-2014In September, Aaron Finch and Shaun Marsh smashed the Australian record for the all-time highest opening partnership in a one-day international. Finch’s maiden ODI century was a key factor. Four months later, Finch’s second one-day hundred has now put a serious dent in Marsh’s hopes of getting back in the side.Finch’s 148 in that match will always occupy a special place for him as his first hundred for his country in the 50-over format. But his 121 in Melbourne on Sunday evening, against sterner opposition, and in front of nearly 40,000 fans, will remain special for Finch for another reason. He became the first Victorian to score an ODI century at the MCG.”I didn’t know that until after the game,” Finch said. “It’s a very nice feeling. It’s a phenomenal place to play cricket, the atmosphere, the ground, everything is ideal for cricket. It’s a place that I’ve loved playing over the years for Victoria and when you get accolades like that it’s nice. I thought that Deano [Jones] definitely would have got one before me but he must have missed out a couple of times.”The closest Jones ever came to achieving the feat was his 93 against England in 1986-87, although he was also left not out in the 80s on two other occasions. As a young boy growing up in Colac, in Victoria’s south-west, Finch would have seen the back end of Jones’ international career while dreaming of emulating, let alone surpassing, his feats.Finch’s 121 against England was far from a chanceless innings – he was dropped on 8 and continued to ride his luck throughout – but it has given him confidence that a place at the top of the ODI order can be his for the long term. The home World Cup is just over a year away and the Finch-David Warner opening combination may well be the one Australia carry in to that tournament.”Marshy has been in good form in the Big Bash and he was in England before he got injured again,” Finch said. “It’s always nice to do well early in a series and keep the pressure on and hopefully keep my spot for a couple more games.”I think [the World Cup] is a little bit on everyone’s mind. It’s important to start a series really well. As a batsman, it gives you a lot of confidence going through the series and it’s not an easy game when you’re chasing your tail and chasing runs and trying to grind them out towards the end of the series.”It’s important to get them early and then you can play on the back of that with confidence and really try and turn it into an outstanding series personally and for the team and really try and cement your spot. I don’t [think] there’s a hell of a lot of one-day cricket to be played before the World Cup in 2015, so I think it’s really important to get runs and stay in the side. It’s going to be hard with the quality of players lined up to take your spot, it’s exceptional, so to keep them at bay for a little while longer is a good feeling.”For now, Finch is doing just what he needs to – scoring big runs when he gets the chance in the national side. Since the end of the Ashes in England, he has made 780 runs at 55.71 in all formats for Australia. Nobody has a better average than Finch in that time and only George Bailey and Shane Watson, who are also part of the Test side, have scored more runs.Finch celebrated his hundred in the middle of the MCG with a high five from his captain and batting partner Michael Clarke, as they ran through for a couple of runs, followed by a hug and a lengthy acknowledgement of the crowd’s standing ovation. Although Finch fell with 33 runs still required for the victory, his effort was easily sufficient to earn his third Man of the Match award for Australia from 28 one-day and T20 appearances.”With the hug, it was a very big relief to get the hundred,” Finch said. “In front of my home crowd, it was very special. I was pretty keen to get on with the game and continue on, but he [Clarke] made sure I soaked it up and really appreciated the moment. He just said enjoy it, soak it up, keep going, let’s keep playing well. Make sure you’re not out at the end. So I let the captain down a little bit there.”Finch and James Pattinson, who did not play the first ODI, will now be released from the squad to play for the Melbourne Renegades against the Sydney Thunder on Tuesday, before rejoining the group ahead of the second ODI in Brisbane. Shane Watson will be rested from that Brisbane match on Friday as Australia continue to manage the workload of their Test and ODI players, but Mitchell Johnson will be back after being given the Melbourne match off.