On August 29 in 2013, the then 26-year-old Aaron Finch scored a rampant 156 off just 63 deliveries during Australia's first T20I against England in Southampton.
The Aussie hammered 11 fours and an astonishing 14 sixes in his whirlwind innings at a staggering strike-rate of 247.61. Finch almost single-handedly took Australia to a magnificent total of 248 for six. Australia would go on to win the match comfortably by 39 runs, courtesy Finch’s opening blitz.
It was the highest individual T20I innings at that time. Incidentally, the batsman from Victoria broke the record again on July 3, 2018 with a mesmerising 172 against a weak Zimbabwe bowling attack.
Finch was a relatively unknown quantity at that stage and was yet to prove his mettle in the international cricket. However, the innings proved to be his breakthrough innings with the hard-hitter soon becoming a vital cog in the wheel for the Australian selectors.
The Australian opener’s Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore tweeted about the memorable innings from their official Twitter handle:
#OnThisDay in , @AaronFinch5 went into absolute beast mode and scored an incredible century to help beat in the 1st T20I at Southampton!
Runs: (63)
4s:
6s:
S/r: #PlayBold pic.twitter.com/3vRvcf3C1C— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) August 29, 2020
Australia had come into that T20I series following demoralising 0-3 loss at the hands of England in the Ashes. The Aussies went with a new-look T20 side, with George Bailey as the captain and several unestablished players like Aaron Finch , Glenn Maxwell among others.
The fresh blood immediately brought results for the visitors. Australia drew the T20 series 1-1 and then won the five match ODI series 2-1 which concluded the tour.
Finch would go on to become an ever present figure for the Aussies and led his side to the semi-finals of the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
The Australian is all set to lead the national side in a white-ball tour of England following the COVID-19 hiatus.
Australia are all set to play three T20Is and as many ODIs, commencing September 4.
After the tour, Finch will join his Royal Challengers Bangalore squad in UAE for the IPL 2020, which is slated to begin on September 19 and will be played across three venues – Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
