Thursday’s defeat in Durham left the visitors four-down in the Royal London series with one to play, and despite Australia’s fine start with the bat in the fourth ODI – Finch scored a century, becoming the first man to register six ODI centuries against England – the opener admitted his side were “always chasing the game”.

Aaron Finch bats during the 4th Royal London ODI between England and AustraliaFinch partly blamed himself for failing to cash-in after reaching triple figures. “I probably left a heap of runs out there,” Finch said after the match. “I had a good partnership with Shaun Marsh, but for me to get out just past 100 was disappointing.

“It would have been nice to cash in and get 140 or 150 and put the pressure on them to take risks in the middle overs. We could have really kicked on and put the foot down in that last 12-13 overs. I take full responsibility for us not getting 330-340.”

“The tone England are setting in one-day cricket is the benchmark in the world. They’re playing like the No.1 side in the world for a reason. They’re full of confidence and have a lot of depth in their batting. They have confidence to know that their Nos. 6, 7, 8 or 9 can get the job done even if things don’t go well at the top of the order. They’ve a pretty good blueprint.

”We have to stick to our strengths and find a way to stick in contests for longer. Once we find the formula I think it’ll turn for us pretty quickly. These lessons will be valuable going forward.”

VIEW SCORECARD