Australian opener Mitchell Marsh scored a brilliant 96 off 84 balls in the third ODI in Rajkot, but was left disappointed to miss out on a century by just four runs. Marsh added a 78-run opening stand inside 9 overs with David Warner, and then hit 13 fours and three sixes during his knock. He was rested in the second ODI, but came back strong in the third match to give his team a flying start.
“I was looking to give my team a good start inside the powerplay,” Marsh said to the broadcasters during the mid-innings break. “The wicket was really good, we assessed the conditions very early and wanted to get as many as we could in the powerplay to set up a platform.”
Mitchell Marsh was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav in the 47th over, just four runs short of a century.
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“Personally would’ve been nice to get another 4 runs but happy with our job,” Marsh said. “We’re going to change the pace, saw that it worked towards the back end there. Was nice, hopefully we can come out and do well, kickstart our India tour. As you saw the wicket slowed up a bit as the ball got older. Hopefully it does the same for us and 352 will be a few too many.”
Mitchell Marsh on Rajkot weather 🌞#CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/SZOheKfUzm
— Cricket Winner (@cricketwinner_) September 27, 2023
Australia finished their 50 overs on 352/7, with David Warner (56), Steve Smith (74), and Marnus Labuschagne (72) also contributing to the total. India now needs 353 to win and clean-sweep the Aussies heading into the World Cup.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
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Australia (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh, David Warner, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Tanveer Sangha, Josh Hazlewood