Finn keen to cement his spot as England’s spearhead

Finn’s improvement in the past 12 months puts him ahead of the rest, in England and mostly elsewhere, as a strike bowler in limited-overs cricket.

It is the paceman who England will first turn to in an effort to prise out the West Indies’ dangerman Chris Gayle, for example, in their next match in defence of the title they won in the Caribbean two years ago.

Finn has so far picked up an early wicket in each of England’s Group A fixtures – Afghanistan’s Mohammad Shahzad and India’s Irfan Pathan.

But he is far from satisfied with that return, and knows it is up to him to do even better.

England did not do enough with the ball, and certainly not the bat, as they folded to their worst Twenty20 total of 80 all out and their heaviest defeat – by 90 runs – against India in Colombo on Sunday.

But after travelling inland by road yesterday, they are determined to put that experience behind them at Pallekele – starting against the West Indies tomorrow.

“They’re a very dangerous Twenty20 side,” said Finn. “We’re taking no one lightly, and it’s important that we go into this game against them in a couple of days really ready to hit them hard.”

When England bowl, he knows that means him putting pressure on from the outset.

“Whether it’s me opening the bowling or the opening batsmen setting the tone, it’s important that we go out there and do that,” said the Middlesex man.

“As an opening bowler I have to set the tone for the team.

“I could get better at it; I haven’t been brilliant at doing that in the games we’ve played so far in the tournament, and I’m looking to get better again.”

England’s recent statistical homework has convinced them of the value of early wickets – and they did not need a pie-chart to reach the same conclusion after they found themselves on the back foot, and never recovered, once India got through their top order at the Premadasa Stadium on Sunday.

“We know that wickets peg you back in Twenty20 cricket,” said Finn. “We experienced that the other night when the constant flow of wickets really did peg us back.

“It’s my job up front, sometimes bowling at the most dangerous batsmen, to get them out early on.

“I relish that opportunity. It’s great that Broady entrusts me with that new ball to go out there and try and do it – and it’s something I really enjoy.”

With the minnows of this tournament all gone, England know they will have to play well to pick up the minimum two wins out of three they need over the next six days to earn a return to Colombo next week for the knockout stages.

They have been adept, sometimes but not always in recent times, at bouncing back after a poor performance – and Finn is placing great store in that resilience.

He said: “We know we’ve come back in the face of adversity before – we’ve played some of our best cricket after having poor performances – so it’s really exciting moving to Pallekele now to get these next three games under way.

“We don’t have to do anything different than we’ve done.

“We’ve had one bad game – we know that – but we move on from it.

“We brush it under the carpet; we learn from our mistakes, and we get better from it.

“I think it was a bad day at the office. We played very good cricket in the warm-up games and very good cricket against Afghanistan.”

England will neither panic nor abandon the plans they have devised – but which did not work against Harbhajan Singh, in particular, at the weekend – on how to play spin, and combat sub-Continental conditions.

“We have our plans against spin and against seam bowling in Twenty20 cricket, and we’re going to stick to them,” added Finn.

“We’ve been working on our methods against spin bowling for a long time now – even me, batting down at 10 and 11.

“We’ve got plans in place against spin that we hope come off when we get out in the middle. We’ve spent a lot of time strengthening our games against spin over the last two or three years, since I’ve been involved in the set-up, and I think it’s going to come to fruition soon.”

Imran Nazir powered Pakistan as they became the final team to qualify for the Super Eights with an eight-wicket win over Bangladesh.

Pakistan could afford to be defeated by 35 runs or fewer to make it through to the next stage, and knock out their opponents, in last night’s last Group D match at Pallekele.

Bangladesh piled up 175-6, and Pakistan had to make a minimum 140 to progress on run rate – even in defeat – but Nazir’s 72 saw them home with 178-2.