Steve Finn looking to make impact in first Test against New Zealand

London: England pace man Steven Finn thinks he can bowl faster, bouncier and straighter off his new, shortened run-up when he resumes Test duty against New Zealand in Dunedin on Wednesday.

It is not an idle boast either, with Finn providing strong supporting evidence in the one-day series against New Zealand last month. In Napier, the game in which he unveiled his new run-up, he bowled with great control and accuracy, while for glimpses in Auckland he looked like a West Indies great of the 1980s. Ahead of the first Test match, Finn said he doesn`t know if he would bowl faster but it felt quick and bouncy in the two one-days he used it in, adding they would see what the speed gun says in the Test but he is really looking forward to getting going. Finn`s change of run-up, from 25.7meters down to 19.9, looks to have improved him as a bowler yet it might not have happened but for his knee clipping the stumps at Headingley and Graeme Smith`s opportunistic intervention thereafter, the paper said. Smith claimed that Finn disturbed his concentration when the bowler bumped into the stumps and the South African persuaded umpire Steve Davis to call all subsequent collisions as dead ball, including the one with which Finn dismissed him. Now, the MCC has decided to introduce a law that comes into effect in October, making any such contact with the stumps a no ball. Finn said personally it does seem a bit silly but that`s the way it goes, adding Shaun Pollock for a number of years flicked the stumps with his hand and he didn`t get pulled up for distracting the batsmen, but the law has been changed and it`s up to him to adhere to it. ANI