LONDON: Australia are happy to be sitting atop the World Cup standings and are relishing the prospect of an extra day off, captain Aaron Finch said after their convincing win over Sri Lanka last Saturday.

Finch’s superb innings of 153 inspired the defending champions to an 87-run victory at The Oval and they have won four of their first five games as they bid to lift the trophy for the sixth time.

Australia have beaten Afghanistan, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, with defeat by India the only blot on their record as thoughts turn to the next match against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Thursday.

“I think we would have taken it, no doubt at the start of the tournament,” Finch has said.

“You want to win every game but it’s unrealistic at times to think that you’re just going to walk in and win every game in a tournament in conditions like this,” he added. “We’re happy where we’re sitting but definitely time to sit back and assess where we can improve and what we can do over the next couple of weeks to give ourselves the best chance to be standing on the Lord’s balcony on the 14th of July.”

Finch said his players would relish an extra day’s rest after a hectic start to the tournament.

“When you’re playing really good cricket, it’s nice to be playing all the time and it feels like the back-to-back games are really good because you just get on a roll. You get into playing mode,” Finch told a news conference. “But I think the boys do need that extra day. It will do a world of good in the next few days, just to mentally refresh as much as anything, because it’s been a lot of time on a bus and a lot of time in a cricket changing-room.”

Finch struck five sixes and 15 fours against Sri Lanka, sharing a 173-run partnership with former skipper Steve Smith which laid the platform for Australia’s total of 334 for seven.

“I think any time that you manage to get a few runs, you feel pretty good about your game,” Finch said. “My technique’s probably tightened up slightly. There’s been a few technical things I’ve worked on that are just working at the moment.”

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2019