In numbers - Finch signs off as one of the greats of the T20 game
He ranks right up there in the lists for top run-scorers, top century-makers, and much else
Sampath Bandarupalli
13-Jan-2024
Aaron Finch acknowledges the cheers from the stands during his farewell game • Cricket Australia via Getty Images
Aaron Finch retired from professional cricket on Saturday, playing at the Docklands for Melbourne Renegades in his farewell game. It was fitting that he signed off with a T20 game, the format that brought him great success in a career spread over 17 years.
A legend of the T20 format
Finch retires as one of only ten players to aggregate 10,000-plus runs in the T20 format. His tally of 11,458 runs is the seventh-highest overall, and the second-highest among Australians, behind only David Warner's 11,732 (and counting). Finch's tally of eight T20 hundreds is bettered only by two men - Chris Gayle (22) and Babar Azam (10).
His 1095 fours are the fourth-highest for any batter in T20s, while only ten players have hit more sixes than his 452.
Finch is also one of only three batters with multiple 150-plus individual scores in the format, alongside Gayle and Brendon McCullum. Most of his career runs came as an opener - 9697 in 304 matches. Only three batters have had more T20 runs while opening the batting - Gayle (13,469), Alex Hales (11,136) and Warner (10,531).
Six years of T20 greatness
Finch had his best years in the T20 format between 2012 and 2018, where he matched Gayle's consistency. Between October 2012 and September 2018, Finch aggregated 6229 runs across 189 matches. Only Gayle's 7513 runs were higher than Finch's in this period.
He had an average of 37.75 in those six years, marginally behind Gayle's 38.33, but was striking at 147.11, three runs quicker than Gayle. Finch hit six hundreds and 43 fifties in this period, a 50-plus score every 3.8 innings, once again behind only Gayle's 54 50-plus scores (13 100s and 41 50s).
Finch has two hundreds and 26 fifties across the 105 innings he played in the league and ranks second in the 50-plus scores tally, behind Lynn's 31. He is also one of nine batters with more than one hundred in the BBL, with only Ben McDermott (3) ahead. Finch is near the top at hitting boundaries in the BBL too - his 292 fours are the second-highest and he is one of five players to hit 100-plus sixes (118).
A unique treble
Finch's success in T20 leagues was not limited to the BBL. He excelled in the T20 Blast, where he finished with 2067 runs across 57 matches with four hundreds and 11 fifties. Finch's strike rate over there was 158.75, the highest of the 81 batters with 2000-plus runs. His average of 42.18 is the second-highest among the 81 and is only marginally behind Sam Hain's 42.23.
Finch had it comparatively tough in the IPL, where he represented nine franchises in 11 seasons, which is a record. But he finished with 2091 runs, scoring 15 half-centuries in 90 innings. Finch, with over 2000 runs in the BBL, T20 Blast and IPL, remains the only one to pass the milestone in three major T20 leagues. He is also the only one with 2000-plus runs in two leagues as a foreign player.
Breaking his own record
Finch became the first with a 150-plus score in T20Is when he made 156 against England in 2013. Nearly five years later, Finch broke his record for the highest individual score in T20Is when he scored 172 against Zimbabwe, which is still a record. Finch thus holds the unique distinction of breaking his own record for the highest score in a format in international cricket.
Myrtle Maclagan is the only other player with this feat at the international level, having bettered the highest score in women's Tests twice in the space of two matches. The England opener scored 72 in the first-ever women's Test and surpassed it in the next game, scoring the first-ever hundred (119).
Other than Finch, only Hazratullah Zazai (162 not out vs Ireland in 2019) has made 150-plus in a men's T20I innings, while four have done it in women's T20Is, but none as high as Finch's 172.
Sampath Bandarupalli is a statistician at ESPNcricinfo