Injury, Setbacks, Records, and Redemption: Steven Finn’s top performances 9-87 V Bangladesh – Home debut for England at Lords

Finn made his debut for England in the Test Series against Bangladesh in March 2010, after he was brought in as injury cover. Having impressed for Middlesex in the 2009 County Championship season, taking 53 wickets at 30.64, and shown promise whilst out in Bangladesh with England, he made his home debut in May 2010, against Bangladesh at none other than the home of cricket in just his third test for his nation.

The 21-year-old novice single-handedly spurred a demoralised and frustrated England onto victory against a strong Bangladesh side, who had dominated the home side with the bat on Day 1. Finn took 4-100 at an economy of just 4.00 in his first innings, and 5-87 at 3.62 in his second innings. The variation and pace of England’s tallest ever bowler left the visitors with no reply over the course of the first test and inspired a certain Jimmy Anderson to find his form and claim 5 wickets.

In just his third test for his nation at such a young age, Steven had announced himself on the national stage and led his nation to victory in the First Test at Lords.

9-37 V Worcestershire – A Career best stuns Worcestershire

Steven Finn produced arguably his best ever performance with the ball on Day Two of Middlesex’s County Championship fixture against Worcestershire in 2010. Despite some inspired bowling by Finn in the first innings, where he took 5-69 at 3.13, Worcestershire put on a total of 287. A fine spell by Worcestershire pace bowler Richard Jones restricted Middlesex to just 126.

However, on Day Two Finn put on an outstanding display with the ball, taking a career best of 9-37 to shock the hosts into being all out for a mere 119, giving him a match haul of 14-106. Despite the fact that Middlesex would go on to lose this game, Finn’s efforts with the ball were simply sublime, and similarly to his home debut for England at Lords, it demonstrated his uncanny ability to single handedly flip a game on its head, no matter the odds.

It would end up being a career best for Finn, and the eight best innings figures, plus fifteenth best match figures in the Club’s illustrious history.

8-117 V Australia – Redemption for England and success in the Ashes

2013-14 was a turbulent time for Steven, he was in and out of the England and found himself being sent home from England’s tour of Australia after he was deemed to be “not selectable”. Suffering from a confidence issue and constantly fiddling with his action, Finn was in poor form and left struggling to reclaim his place in the England set up.

Following that, thanks to his success with the ball for Middlesex, largely down to bowling coach Richard Johnson, Finn returned to the England side for the 2015 Ashes Series.

In the 3^rd Test at Edgbaston, Finn showed signs of his former self when he took 2-38 at 3.80, striking in his first over to claim the big wicket of Steve Smith with a lovely delivery edged to Cook at first slip, and then to dismiss Clarke with a very full ball, to begin the comeback story.

In his second innings he was ruthless. Finn took 6-79 at 3.76, he dismissed Smith and Clarke again, but also Voges, Marsh, Johnson, and ending the 64-run stand with the wicket of Nevill to give England the breakthrough they desperately needed at that point in the game.

Finn would lead England to an 8-wicket victory on his return to the national side, in what was a truly fairytale story.

5-16 V Surrey – His best white-ball figures

Following a destructive first innings by Middlesex in their T20 Vitality Blast match against Surrey at Lords in 2019, where they posted a total of 210/8, Steven Finn provided his finest performance in white ball cricket, taking 5-16 at 4.00, to restrict a strong Surrey side to 146, 64 short of winning.

Finn removed the powerhouse brothers Sam and Tom Currran, the experienced Jake Dernbach, England international Ben Foakes, and the potentially damaging Clarke in his best white ball figures ever and the sixth best figures returned by a Middlesex bowler in the T20 format of the game.

Steven Finn and his heroics with the ball, bolstered a fantastic performance with the bat by Eoin Morgan and AB de Villiers to ensure victory for Middlesex over Surrey at Lords. Once again, Finn had done something he become accustomed to throughout his career, leading the bowling attack from the front.

3-108 V Leicestershire – His best performance for Sussex

When Steven Finn made the switch to Sussex from his home county of Middlesex, he was struggling with injury, but despite only making 19 appearances, taking 21 wickets, and not featuring at all throughout 2023, he still impressed, and his best performance for the county came with the red ball in the County Championship against Leicestershire in July 2022.

During this match, Finn took 3-108 at 3.27, dismissing Hassan Azad with the first ball of the innings. He then went on to claim the wickets of Kimber and Hill, restricting the visitors to 756. Despite it not being his most impressive performance, considering his injury issues and the position he was in at that point in his career, to continue to carry a County Championship bowling attack in such fashion was immensely admirable.

Steven Finn’s performance that day was a flashback to the days when the six-foot seven bowler would run up to the crease for England and leave the opposition batsman with absolutely, all right it was slightly less breathtaking, but it was nice to see him put on a show for his new club, Sussex.

56 V New Zealand – A fine display with the bat

Despite his heroics with the ball, Steven Finn was also quite handy with the bat throughout career, none more so than when he excelled as nightwatchman in England’s first test at Dunedin in their 2013 tour of New Zealand.

Following Nick Compton’s dismissal for lbw at the hand of Neil Wagner, Finn came out at three to see out the day’s play and to preserve the likes of Jonathan Trott and Kevin Petersen.

Finn survived all the way until the second over after tea, when he was dismissed by the left-arm spin of Bruce Martin, as he tried to play an aggressive slog-sweep.

Despite this, he hugely impressed, hitting a maiden Test and first-class fifty, which would go on to help England save the first test of the tour by allowing players such as Trott to proceed him.

Steven Finn scored 56 of 203 balls at 27.58 and smashing 5 4s in the process to complete a wonderful innings.

5-71 V Australia - First England Bowler to take a World Cup hatrick

Steven Finn became the first England bowler to take a World Cup hat-trick when he took three wickets off the final three balls against Australia in Melbourne at the Cricket World Cup in 2015.

He finished with incredible figures of 5-71, despite it being the second most expensive five-wicket haul in one-day international history.

In the process, Finn dismissed heavyweights Brad Haddin, Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Johnson in a terrific display that prevented the Aussies creating history and breaking e the record total of 344 at a Cricket World Cup, falling at 342-9, largely down to the efforts of Finn.

His hat-trick was the first for an Englishman at the World Cup and the eighth in World Cup history, interestingly all his wickets were catches.

Despite his individual brilliance, England were all out for 231 and lost their World Cup opener to co-hosts Australia.