Marsh ton unlikely to be enough
A gritty century from Western Australia batsman Shaun Marsh has given NSW a tense final day run chase in their Sheffield Shield clash in Canberra, with the winner to host next week’s final.
After three straight ducks, Marsh played one of the gutsiest innings of his career against NSW at Canberra’s Manuka Oval on Thursday to finish with 113 off 246 balls.
He was caught behind off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood (3-53) to wrap up WA’s second innings of 316, setting NSW a victory target of 213 on a tricky Manuka Oval wicket.
The game still hangs in the balance, albeit with NSW ahead at 2-103 and 110 runs away from victory at stumps on day three.
However Blues captain Steve Smith (32 not out) and Ben Rohrer (nine not out) will want a good start on the final day to avoid the type of batting collapses that have been seen in all three previous innings.
NSW, WA, South Australia and Queensland were all in the hunt for a spot in the final heading into this final round, and the winner in Canberra will host that match.
Following a shaky start, WA batsman Marsh crafted a steady knock on day three until he started running out of partners and began to hit out.
With his foot pressed firmly on the accelerator, the recently dropped Test batsman brought up
his ton with a big six over long on while on 94.
He was given out lbw the very next ball, only for umpire Paul Wilson to quickly cancel his own decision in dramatic circumstances.
The ruling upset Test spinner Nathan Lyon (1-91), who was visibly seething by the decision and exchanged words with Marsh.
The 30-year-old then rubbed salt into the wounds of his Australian teammate by smashing a four the following delivery.
To give an idea of just how skilful a knock it was from Marsh, nobody else in the match has reached 50.
WA’s position is a huge turnaround from day one where they suffered a massive batting collapse to be bowled out for 82.
With a tediously slow run rate of about 2.4 per over for the majority of the match, WA’s target could yet prove difficult to chase down a pitch which is proving hard to score on.
