Australia limited-overs captain Aaron Finch on Thursday recalled his expertise of opening the batting alongside India legend Sachin Tendulkar in the Lord’s ‘Bicentenary Celebrations’ match in 2014.
Finch, who had shared a 107-run partnership with Sachin in the match, revealed that he was extraordinarily aware about not working the previous batsman out. Finch and Tendulkar opened the batting for Marylebone Cricket Club in opposition to the Rest of the World as a part of the Lord’s Bicentenary celebration match in 2014.
“All I was thinking was don’t run him out. Just do not run Sachin out. I think it was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, crowds that Lord’s has ever had. It was a huge anniversary, Sachin’s captaining one team, Warnie’s [Warne] captaining the other,” Aaron Finch mentioned on the Sony Ten Pitstop Show.
Sachin Tendulkar made everybody at Lord’s nostalgic with some delectable strokes but it surely was younger Aaron Finch, who stole the present with a powerful 181 as MCC comfortably beat Rest of the World by seven wickets in the ‘Bicentenary Celebrations’ match.
Finch’s 145 ball innings had 23 fours and 6 sixes as he overshadowed India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh’s enticing 132 for the Rest of the World.
Finch mentioned that it was most likely the most important gathering for a cricket match and Lord’s and with the massive presence of Indian followers, he feared he could not get out of the stadium, had he ran out the Master Blaster.
“That was a huge day. I think there was a huge Indian presence at the ground too, they were very loud. Obviously, the chants of ‘Sachin-Sachin’ going up all around the Lord’s. And I just kept thinking, ‘If I run him out, I would never hear the end of this. I might not get out of Lord’s’.”
“Luckily, that was an unbelievable experience, batting with Sachin, [Rahul] Dravid, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, it was unbelievable. Also on the other side was Gilly (Adam Gilchrist) and [Virender] Sehwag opening the batting, which is an absolute dream for me to watch them bat together. KP [Kevin Pietersen], Yuvi [Yuvraj Singh] got a big hundred as well. It was unbelievable, such a great day, something that I would never forget,” mentioned Finch.
