That was an unbelievable experience: Aaron Finch recalls batting with Sachin Tendulkar at Lord’s in 2014

Australia limited-overs captain Aaron Finch on Thursday recalled his experience of opening the batting alongside India legend Sachin Tendulkar in the Lord’s ‘Bicentenary Celebrations’ match in 2014.

Finch, who had shared a 107-run partnership with Sachin in the match, revealed that he was extremely conscious about not running the former batsman out. Finch and Tendulkar opened the batting for Marylebone Cricket Club against the Rest of the World as part of the Lord’s Bicentenary celebration match in 2014.

“All I was thinking was don’t run him out. Just do not run Sachin out. I think it was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, crowds that Lord’s has ever had. It was a huge anniversary, Sachin’s captaining one team, Warnie’s [Warne] captaining the other,” Aaron Finch said on the Sony Ten Pitstop Show.

Sachin Tendulkar made everyone at Lord’s nostalgic with some delectable strokes but it was young Aaron Finch, who stole the show with a magnificent 181 as MCC comfortably beat Rest of the World by seven wickets in the ‘Bicentenary Celebrations’ match.

Finch’s 145 ball innings had 23 fours and six sixes as he overshadowed India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh’s attractive 132 for the Rest of the World.

Finch said that it was probably the biggest gathering for a cricket match and Lord’s and with the large presence of Indian fans, he feared he may not get out of the stadium, had he ran out the Master Blaster.

“That was a huge day. I think there was a huge Indian presence at the ground too, they were very loud. Obviously, the chants of ‘Sachin-Sachin’ going up all around the Lord’s. And I just kept thinking, ‘If I run him out, I would never hear the end of this. I might not get out of Lord’s’.”

“Luckily, that was an unbelievable experience, batting with Sachin, [Rahul] Dravid, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, it was unbelievable. Also on the other side was Gilly (Adam Gilchrist) and [Virender] Sehwag opening the batting, which is an absolute dream for me to watch them bat together. KP [Kevin Pietersen], Yuvi [Yuvraj Singh] got a big hundred as well. It was unbelievable, such a great day, something that I would never forget,” said Finch.