Finch shelves his attacking instincts

He stopped short of calling it enjoyable, but Aaron Finch thrived playing a defensive anchor role not many would typically associate with the destructive limited-overs star on day four of the Sheffield Shield final in Alice Springs.

Finch led a gritty batting effort on the penultimate day of the five-day decider, finishing with 83 as he put Victoria in sight of their third straight Shield title.

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The International Cricket Council's second-ranked T20 batsman was instrumental in wearing down a South Australia attack who have been forced to bowl on every day of the one-sided match.

Finch padded away ball after ball from leg-spinner Adam Zampa, who operated from around the wicket for much of the day, only deviating from his defensive mindset when he judiciously aimed a couple of mighty strikes to deliveries not pitching in the threatening footmarks.

"It's never enjoyable when you have to block them for a while," Finch said with a wry smile after play, with the Bushrangers holding a 454-run advantage.

"It's just a different challenge.

"(At the start of day four) there was two days to go in a Shield year and a chance to go with three in a row.

"It was a no-brainer really just to do whatever the team needed at the time.

"We knew that scoring opportunities were going to come eventually. We knew that they had to eventually bring the field up a little bit.

"It was just an old-fashioned grinding day with the conditions the way they were, the ball gets quite very soft very quickly, which makes it quite hard (to score)."

While he often shouldered arms to Zampa bowling into that dangerous rough, Finch still managed to score off 16 of the 58 balls he faced from the wrist-spinner, rotating the strike as Victoria remained wary of losing control of the match.

"We knew (we were in a) pretty delicate situation still, we know how hard they can go and how quick they can score," he explained.

"So we had to take a little bit of care in that first session and then really try and keep batting to get ourselves in a strong position.

"When there's bat-pad there, there's a guy at 45 (degrees behind square on the leg-side) for the sweep shot.

"I tried a couple, but it was it was quite a risky shot still with it bouncing so much out of the rough.

"I think it was going to be a real grind with him bowling around the wicket so much. I think that was a plan from them as well to try and restrict the scoring.

"I thought our tactics were really good today as well."

Cricketers often speak of the highs and lows the sport naturally provides, but Finch has had a particularly turbulent summer.

The 30-year-old found himself dropped from Victoria's Shield side in November, making way for close friend Glenn Maxwell who'd contentiously suffered the same fate in the Bushrangers' season-opener.

Finch posted his first Shield century in more than six years after being recalled later that month, but then found himself dropped from Australia's one-day international squad to face Pakistan in January after a lean trot in the 50-over format.

Remarkably, he then found himself captaining Australia in their next ODI series in New Zealand, as Steve Smith, David Warner and then on the morning of the first match of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in Auckland, Matthew Wade were all ruled out for various reasons.

Returning to Victoria, he's continued a productive summer against the red ball, averaging more than 50 in the Shield, with five half-centuries and just one single-figure dismissal all season.

Now eyeing his second Shield title having missed Victoria's past two triumphs due to national duties, Finch admitted playing a role in a Bushrangers' three-peat would be some accomplishment.

"I probably wouldn't have got a game in the other (Shield finals) anyway," Finch said with a grin in Melbourne last week.

"It was probably lucky I was away.

"It's a fantastic opportunity. I was lucky enough to win one in my first season (in 2009-10).

"It'd be a great achievement to do it again."