Finisher Faulkner strikes again

That James Faulkner struck the winning runs against England on Friday should have been no surprise, for he is one of the finest finishers in one-day cricket. So when Australia were cruising to victory at the SCG but stuttering in pursuit of the bonus point, the sight of Faulkner walking to the crease with eight needed off eight balls for that bonus point was a welcome one for Australian fans.

He started by thumping a boundary through the leg side off Chris Woakes first ball, and in the 40th over slapped Stuart Broad over midwicket for the winning runs with a ball to spare. By Faulkner's lofty standards, finishing with 6 not out was a minor achievement, but Australia lost four wickets in four overs since deciding to push for the bonus point, so his role was still an important one.

It was the sixth time in his 34-match ODI career that Faulkner had been not out at the end of a successful chase. It is an impressive record even compared with other renowned finishers; after his first 34 ODIs Michael Bevan had only been at the crease when the winning runs were struck on three occasions, and Michael Hussey twice.

The numbers don't end there. Faulkner has the phenomenal average of 131.33 when batting second in ODIs, comfortably the best of any player with a 10 innings minimum. He also currently sits 39th on the ICC's one-day international batting rankings - two places better than Friday's century-maker David Warner.

"Last night it was literally the 35th-over mark when we decided to have a crack [at the bonus point]," Faulkner said in Melbourne on Saturday. "Probably in the end we shouldn't have got it, but Hadds [Brad Haddin] came out and whacked a couple of boundaries. It was a good run chase to get them inside 40 overs with a ball to go.

"It's my job [to get] bat on ball at the end of an innings. There's going to be times when things don't go to plan, but I didn't have to contribute much with the bat last night. I just had to get the last couple of runs, the rest of the boys did the job and it was set up by David.

"It's phenomenal. He's in great touch and hopefully that can continue over the next couple of months. He's hitting balls to all parts of grounds and really controlling his innings, so that's a credit to himself and I'm sure he's going to have a very good couple of months for Australia."

Although Warner's 127 was key to Australia's successful chase, Mitchell Starc was named Man of the Match for his four-wicket haul, which included two in the first over of the game and two more in the final over of England's innings. In amongst it, Faulkner picked up 3 for 47 himself, continuing his strong bowling form after he finished 2014 as Australia's leading ODI wicket taker for the year.

His all-round prowess will make him hard to overlook when the World Cup begins and Australia have to settle on their best XI. For now, he is preparing to resume battle at the MCG on Sunday with India, against whom he had a remarkable away series in 2013, when he was Australia's equal top wicket taker, scored his maiden ODI hundred and blasted 64 not out off 29 balls in Mohali in one of the great ODI chases.

"They've been a very good one-day team for a long time, and they've got all areas covered," Faulkner said of India. "I think the last series [against them] was one of the most remarkable series I've been involved in, and probably in history, with the amount of runs scored in 50 overs. I'm sure there's going to be another big score tomorrow for whoever bats first.

"It looked like a very good Test series and the Indian batsmen were in pretty good touch, Virat [Kohli] is in good touch. They're going to be tough tomorrow. It's going to be a good one-day contest, they're a very good one-day team and so are we."