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Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh shared his emotions after falling short of a century on Day 3 of the Boxing Day Test against Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Mitchell Marsh fell short 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 opportunity, he played aggressively, hitting thirteen boundaries en route to a score of 96 off 130 balls. However, a stunning catch by Salman Ali Agha brought an end to Marsh’s entertaining innings, leaving him just shy of the century mark. This marked the second instance in the ongoing three-match series where Marsh was dismissed in the 90s, following a similar fate in the previous Test in Perth, where he was dismissed at 90.
Also WATCH: Agha Salman takes a brilliant catch to get rid of Mitchell Marsh on Day 3 of MCG Test
Marsh offers his perspective
With his entire family present at the venue, including his brother Shaun and father Geoff, Marsh reflected on the near miss, acknowledging that he was eager to get his name on the MCG honors board. He couldn’t help but recall the near misses of his brother and father, who had also narrowly missed out on scoring a century at the iconic MCG, creating a poignant family 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, despite important losing wickets, managed to build a lead of 241 runs as they reached 187/6. The only recognized batter on the crease at stumps is wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey. Reflecting on the pitch conditions, Marsh noted the difficulty in scoring runs and expressed the belief that a lead of nearly 300 runs would be sufficient for Australia to secure a victory in the Test 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.
