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Finch unaware of half century record

Cape Town - Australia opener, Aaron Finch, has admitted that he was unaware that he was in a position to break both the Australian and world records for the fastest ODI fifty in the fourth match of the series in Dambulla on Wednesday.

Finch claims he was simply trying to make the most of the new ball, before conditions once again became extremely spin-friendly.

The Victorian leveled the Australian record for the fastest fifty in ODIs and now holds the mark with fellow Victorians Glen Maxwell and Simon O’Donnell.

Speaking of his innings, Finch said: “In a small chase like that you tend to want to try and break the back of the innings as quick as you can, but as it worked out we got off to a flyer,

“That was nice but there’s never any pre-planning that I’m going to go out and tee off, so to speak.

“It was more that we wanted to cash in on the first 10 as much as we can, and that’s all we spoke about with me and Davey and the guys coming in.

“Scoring outside of that was going to be very hard, as soon as the shine went off the ball and especially with Angelo going down there was going to be no pace on the ball so we had to make sure that we went as hard as we could then,

“It was about being aggressive in the first 10 overs and we knew that was going to be the best time to bat, that’s all it was.”

The 29-year-old admitted to feeling a little disappointed at not having broken the record held by his friend Maxwell.

Finch joked: “I was disappointed not to beat Maxi to be fair, I would have liked to have beaten Maxi.

“But Simon O’Donnell, he was a revolutionary of the game wasn’t he?

“He was someone who played the game in a sort of modern-day way.”

The Victorian could have tied AB de Villier's world record and may have also broke Australia's national record had he not taken three balls to get off 49.

Finch added: “I had absolutely no idea what the record was until you see it come up on the screen later on,

“My job at the top of the order is to get us off to a good start and a fast start in these conditions, they’re not really conditions where you consolidate with the new ball and then develop as your innings goes on.

“It’s go hard at the top and see how you go from there.

“Tough, tough conditions out there.”

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