Aaron Finch scored an overdue century in his last start in the Sheffield Shield but switches focus to the white ball as Australia prepare for the Chappell-Hadlee
Timely ton has Finch primed for NZ series
A rare red-ball century is a timely confidence boost for Australian batsman Aaron Finch ahead of next week's Chappell-Hadlee one-day international series against New Zealand.
Finch top-scored with 102 in Victoria's first innings against South Australia – his first Sheffield Shield ton in more than six years.
He also scored 33 on Tuesday as the Bushrangers extended their perfect start to the Shield season with a five-wicket win.
Finch wants to translate that Shield ton into plenty of runs against the Black Caps, with the three-game VB ODI series starting in Sydney on Sunday.
"Any time you get runs in any format, it's nice," he said.
"I probably haven't scored as many as I would have liked over the last two tours for Australia.
"There have been some cameos there, some 50s off a few, but nothing really significant to win a game.
"It was nice to get runs in a tough situation when the team needed it," he added on SEN.
"I haven’t played a lot of four-day cricket in a row ... you're in for one game then go away for a one-day or T20 tour then you're back, so it's hard to get a flow.
It was Finch's sixth first-class ton – but he has eight for Australia in one-dayers and T20s.
Australia's Test series against South Africa and Pakistan sandwich the one-day series, and Finch welcomed the change in formats.
"This is as good a time as any," he said.
"Whenever there are six Tests in a summer, you probably have to space them out a little bit ... otherwise guys just won't get through.
"It's unusual for us, because you're used to the Gabba Test being the first Test of the summer.
"But it's still fantastic to have one-day cricket back again.
"They worked it out, for the Test players, they have three days off for that whole summer, three days that don't involve travel, training or recovery or playing," he told SEN.
"It's a tough period, but people want more cricket, and the more you play, the money is generated that goes back to grassroots level."
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