Australia skipper Aaron Finch feels his partnership with star batsman Glenn Maxwell laid the perfect foundation for the team to post a mammoth total in the third T20I against New Zealand.
Australia posted 208/4 from their 20 overs courtesy half-centuries from Finch and Maxwell, and a quickfire 43 from Josh Philippe helped the visitors end well. Finch and Maxwell's partnership raced to 64 runs in just 5.5 overs before Ish Sodhi dismissed the Australian skipper.
While Finch returned to form, Ashton Agar stole the show as he picked six wickets to steer Australia to a victory the third T20I. The Australian skipper felt relaxed as he contributed to the victory and pointed out how the visitors gained an upper hand in the powerplay.
"Nice when you contribute to a win. I suppose that partnership with Maxi allowed us to go deeper. When you get wickets in the powerplay and having the rate at 10 and a half and 11 already, they had to take risks, you squeeze them and that was the difference tonight," said Finch after the win.
In the second T20I, Australia had almost got over the line with Marcus Stoinis and Del Sams' blistering knocks. Though Australia has fielded a young side against New Zealand, Finch feels that cannot be an excuse to justify the loss in the first two games.
"Everyone is bloody excited to see Riley. We knew that we weren't too far off in the last game, we were pretty close in the first. We're a young team but that's not an excuse, we come here to win. To be 2-1 is...okay, we're still alive," said Finch.
The fourth T20I between both sides will be played on Friday.
( With inputs from ANI )
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