Finch fires but WA cruise into Marsh Cup final

Aaron Finch is back among the runs ahead of Australia's limited-overs tour of Pakistan but it wasn't enough to get Victoria over the line as they were comfortably beaten by Western Australia on Tuesday.

The Aussie white-ball skipper played a lone hand for the hosts as they posted an under-par 143 all out after being asked to bat first in the Marsh One-Day Cup fixture at the Junction Oval.

Finch, again batting at No.3, as he did in his first game for Victoria in 820 days on Sunday where he made a first-ball duck, found it difficult early on a pitch offering plenty of assistance to WA's international-quality attack featuring Jhye Richardson, AJ Tye and Jason Behrendorff.

It was left solely up to the 35-year-old to get the Vics to a total of substance after his experienced teammates Peter Handscomb (12), Glenn Maxwell (2) and Nic Maddinson (4) all fell cheaply, the hosts slumping to 7-86 in 27 overs.

Eventually, Finch was forced to turn down singles to fielders on the boundary as he tried to shield the tail from the strike and ensure that Victoria's bowlers had at least something to try and defend.

But just as he looked to be finding his groove with a couple of boundaries off Aaron Hardie and D'Arcy Short, he picked out deep square leg and was out for 67 (100).

It was valuable time in the middle for Finch ahead of a three-match ODI series and sole T20I in Pakistan later this month and his best knock since the Melbourne Renegades' final match of KFC BBL|11 after a lean T20 series against Sri Lanka that yielded 78 runs in five innings with a strike-rate of under a run-a-ball (91.76).

"It's always nice to go into a series getting some runs but that's still a couple of weeks away so now it's just down to a couple of weeks of training," he said after the six-wicket loss.

"I feel like I'm hitting it nicely; I'm just tinkering a little bit with my technique and a few really minor changes, so it's just about trying to get them implemented as quick as I can.

"It's been good to be back (with Victoria). It's great to be around the young kids and especially guys who are just starting out in their professional journey, so to be a part of that and to try and help out where I can has been really nice."

The wickets were shared among WA's bowlers with Hardie (3-28), Richardson (2-12) and Behrendorff (2-27) collecting multiple scalps.

In reply, WA looked to be batting on a different wicket as they breezed to the target of 144 in 27.1 overs to secure the bonus point and leapfrog Tasmania and NSW into top spot to qualify for Friday's Marsh Cup final, also at the Junction Oval.

Victoria's young bowling attack had no answers for the visitors' classy top order as opener D'Arcy Short crunched 54 off 49 deliveries with nine boundaries in the six-wicket win.

"It was just a mindset to go out there and play positively and it worked out today," Short said. "It's somewhere I like batting (opening) but I'll do anything for WA and (bat) wherever's best suited for the team."

Veteran Shaun Marsh was also in the runs with 31 (51) as the two left-handers preyed on anything short, wide or over-pitched, while Hilton Cartwright smashed 22 not out off 11 balls to finish the game in a hurry.

Cameron McClure was impressive in just his second List A outing, removing Short and Marsh in the space of three balls before picking up Ashton Turner (9) to finish with figures of 3-38 from eight overs.