New Delhi:
Shaun Marsh has enjoyed a rich vein of form in the ODI format ever since making a comeback into the national side during Australia’s disastrous tour of England in 2018. Since then, he has been scoring consistently and in Adelaide, he continued to hurt India by blasting his seventh century and propelling Australia towards a massive score in the Adelaide ODI against India. This game is a must-win for Virat Kohli’s side and Marsh’s ton has gone a long way in giving Australia a firm advantage in winning the series. Last year, the Australian side won just two matches in the whole year and they have a chance to secure a wonderful series win.
Marsh got going in style by flicking a full ball from Mohammed Siraj and he held the Australian innings together along with Usman Khawaja. Marsh broke the shackles by targeting Siraj as he hit the bowler for a couple of boundaries. Khawaja also grew in confidence and the duo shared a 56-run stand for the fourth wicket but the partnership ended when Ravindra Jadeja ran Khawaja out for 21. The left-hander continued to find the boundary and he notched up a fifty to put Australia on course for a big score.
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Although Australia lost Peter Handscomb, Marsh struck boundaries at will, mostly of Siraj and he grew in confidence even against the spinners, lofting Kuldeep Yadav to the long off fence. Marsh neared his century by cutting Kuldeep to the deep backward point fence and he reached his century by pushing the chinaman bowler to the long off fence. After reaching his century, Marsh opened up by lofting Kuldeep inside-out over the deep extra cover fence.
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Marsh stepped up a gear by hammering two sixes off Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar into the stands at deep midwicket but in the process of acceleration, he holed out to Ravindra Jadeja at long off to depart for 131.
Ever since making a comeback in the England series, Marsh has been in outstanding form. He has had scores of 24,131,24,101,8,22,106,54 and now this hundred. Having scored just four hundreds in 10 years, Marsh now has three in the last year and his form will be vital for Australia as they begin their title defence in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England beginning on May 31.
