Two of Colac’s finest cricketing exports have both blazed career-best knocks in just hours of each other.
Aaron Finch announced himself as a player to watch in Australia’s one-day domestic scene by scoring a match-winning 87 not out for the Victorian Bushrangers in a 50-over one-dayer at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday night.
Finch’s run-a-ball 87 was the 22-year-old’s highest score in first-class cricket and helped the Bushrangers achieve their highest run chase ever – surpassing Tasmania’s 7-300 with four balls to spare.   
Just hours earlier, former Bushranger and fellow Colac-bred batsman Liam Buchanan recorded his highest score in Victorian Premier League cricket.
Resuming at six not out from the previous week, the power-punching right-hander smashed 245 off 229 balls to help Geelong chase down Casey-South Melbourne’s 241.
Buchanan, who scored almost 70 per cent of the home side’s 4-357 declared, hit 31 fours and six sixes to eclipse his previous Premier League best of
239.
Finch, who turns 23 later this month, averaged 16.33 leading into his eighth domestic one-dayer on Saturday night, with a previous best of 33.
Finch said the performance was retribution for Victorian selectors, which have stuck by him through his first two seasons as a contracted player. 

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