Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh shared his feelings after falling in need of a century on Day 3 of the Boxing Day Take a look at towards Pakistan on the Melbourne Cricket Floor (MCG).
Mitchell Marsh fell in need of boxing day century at MCG
Coming to the crease with Australia struggling at 16/4, Marsh was given a reprieve when dropped by Abdullah Shafique at first slip on 20. Capitalizing on the chance, he performed aggressively, hitting 13 boundaries en path to a rating of 96 off 130 balls. Nonetheless, a surprising catch by Salman Ali Agha introduced an finish to Marsh’s entertaining innings, leaving him simply shy of the century mark. This marked the second occasion within the ongoing three-match collection the place Marsh was dismissed within the 90s, following an identical destiny within the earlier Take a look at in Perth, the place he was dismissed at 90.
Additionally WATCH: Agha Salman takes a superb catch to do away with Mitchell Marsh on Day 3 of MCG Take a look at
Marsh presents his perspective
Together with his total household current on the venue, together with his brother Shaun and father Geoff, Marsh mirrored on the close to miss, acknowledging that he was wanting to get his identify on the MCG honors board. He couldn’t assist however recall the close to misses of his brother and father, who had additionally narrowly missed out on scoring a century on the iconic MCG, making a poignant household connection to the historic venue.
“Obviously disappointing … I thought we navigated our way out of a tricky situation to get a partnership with Smudge, and I guess there’s a lot of history at this ground, the Boxing Day Test, and a bloody big honors board that I was close to getting on, but it wasn’t meant to be. Shaun got run out for 99 and Dad got 86 here, so Shaun’s technically still got me… hopefully, I get one more crack at it,” Marsh was quoted as saying by PerthNow.
Pitch challenges and Australia’s lead
Australia, regardless of essential shedding wickets, managed to construct a lead of 241 runs as they reached 187/6. The one acknowledged batter on the crease at stumps is wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey. Reflecting on the pitch circumstances, Marsh famous the problem in scoring runs and expressed the idea {that a} lead of almost 300 runs can be enough for Australia to safe a victory within the Take a look at match.
“It felt like really hard work, the ball was swinging around and Shaheen had his tail up – we know that he’s world-class. I still felt even on 96 that I could nick one, and I did – there’s still plenty in the wicket… for us to get in a position where we’re 240 ahead, we’re very happy,” the 32-year-old added.
“I think that if we were all out now we’d feel very much in the game… I don’t necessarily want to put a number on it for our bowlers but we know that they can certainly hold a bat so a couple of good partnerships with some tired bowlers now, hopefully, we can get up towards the 300 mark,” the Attadale-born cricketer concluded.
