When Steven Finn walked onto the park to bat at no. 3 as a night watchman in England’s second innings towards the end of the fourth day of the first test match against New Zealand, nobody would have expected him to spend 5 hours at the crease. But, he did that. His inning of 56 off 203 balls was one of the best played by a night watchman. He batted for more than two sessions on that crucial final day and helped his team save the test match.

In the first session of the fifth day, the ball was moving and Neil Wagner was creating a lot of problems. The ball went past Finn’s bat on quite a few occasions, but, he showed maturity and didn’t try to go for a slog. He kept fighting and eventually managed to survive for 5 hours.

Just after the tea break, Finn was dismissed by Bruce Martin, but, till then, he had done his job. When he was returning to the pavilion, everyone in the dressing room was applauding.
Finn hit five fours during his inning and most of those boundaries came square of the wicket on the off side.

Immediately after the fall of Finn’s wicket after tea, Joe Root also got out and all of a sudden, the match got exciting. But, Bell and Prior saw off the day after that and made sure that the match would end in a draw.

Talking to the reporters after the end of the match, Finn said, “I really enjoyed batting for so long. I had never thought that I would contribute so much with the bat. But, sometimes, the unexpected things happen in cricket and it’s one of those things.”

“I just wanted to be out there as long as possible. So, I was just looking to block and leave deliveries. I got beaten a few times, but, I kept telling myself not to go for the aggressive shots.”