Australia opener Mitchell Marsh looked a relieved man as he walked out to have a chat with the official broadcasters after Australia opened their account in World Cup 2023, beating Sri Lanka by 5 wickets in Lucknow. The team and Marsh had endured a poor start to their campaign in India, losing two matches on the bounce.
Marsh, opening the batting with David Warner in the absence of Travis Head, was out for a duck against India and managed just 7 against South Africa. However, he came good in Australia’s 210-run chase in Lucknow with a quickfire 52. Marsh looked good for more but he was run out while trying to take a single.
Australia rode on Josh Inglis’s fifty from there to steer past the finish line in the 36th over and end their winless run in the showpiece 50-over World Cup.
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Speaking to the broadcasters after the win in Lucknow, Marsh responded to a cheeky question from Sunil Gavaskar who asked the Australia star if his father taught him to play down the ground. It was a compliment from Gavaskar, who lauded Marsh’s aggressive approach at the top for Australia.
“I am just making up for his poor strike rate,” Mitchell Marsh told Star Sports, referring to his father’s strike rate of 55.73 across 117 matches in ODI cricket.
Mitchell Marsh had an opportunity to push ahead and get a bigger score, but he was run-out while trying to take a double in the 15th over. Chamika Karunaratne’s gun throw from the deep saw the end of Marsh’s innings as the all-rounder was out for 52 from 51 balls.
“The boys are calling me Usain Bolt. Felt like one of those dreams where you’re running back for a run but you can’t run. But yeah, it was a really good day for us.”
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Australia will next face Pakistan at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday. Pakistan are heading into the match after their crushing defeat to India in Ahmedabad and the big-ticket clash in the South Indian city might play an influential role in deciding the two teams’ chances of making the semi-finals.
