A rare red-ball century is a timely confidence boost for Australian batsman Aaron Finch ahead of the one-day cricket series against New Zealand.
Finch top-scored with 102 in Victoria's first innings against South Australia - his first Sheffield Shield ton in more than six years.
He also scored 33 on Tuesday as the Bushrangers kept their perfect start to the Shield season with a five-wicket win.
Finch wants to translate that Shield ton into plenty of runs against NZ, with the three-game series starting in Sydney on Sunday.
"Any time you get runs in any format, it's nice," he said.
"I probably haven't scored as many as I would have liked over the last two tours for Australia.
"There have been some cameos there, some 50s off a few, but nothing really significant to win a game.
"It's nice getting a hundred, going in with some confidence."
It was Finch's sixth first-class ton - but he has eight for Australia in one-dayers and T20s.
For all his undoubted white-ball expertise, Finch is yet to make the Test team.
"It's no excuse, but it's always a little bit harder when you're in for one or two games and you go away with the ODI side," he said.
"So it's been nice to get some runs here."
Having the one dayers between the South Africa and Pakistan Test series again puts the spotlight on a cluttered international cricket schedule.
But Finch welcomes the change in formats.
"This is as good a time as any," he said.
"Whenever there are six Tests in a summer, you probably have to space them out a little bit ... otherwise guys just won't get through.
"It's unusual for us, because you're used to the Gabba Test being the first Test of the summer.
"But it's still fantastic to have one-day cricket back again."
Share
