Marsh’s dazzling Hundred summer ends in anti-climax
Ian Chadband |
Mitch Marsh has lit up England’s premier white-ball tournament, The Hundred, in thunderous style over the past month — but his magic touch deserted him at the tournament’s penultimate hurdle at the Oval.
Australia’s T20 skipper has been in rampant form for Sunrisers Leeds, the top scorer in the whole event with 416 runs amassed at 46.22 per knock and at a tremendous strike-rate of 169.79.
But when the Headingley-based outfit needed him to be at his unstoppable best in Friday’s (Saturday AEST) ‘eliminator’, chasing Manchester Super Giants’ formidable 4-186, opener Marsh crashed one six — his tournament-leading 29th in 2026 — and a four before he departed for 10 off six balls.
Trying to send England paceman Josh Tongue’s offering out of the ground, Marsh succeeded only in steepling it into the London night sky before Sonny Baker finally got underneath it, holding on at square leg after the ball had been in orbit for an eternity.
With Marsh gone, it was largely down to his England counterpart Harry Brook to lead the chase and his 49 off 31 balls did give Leeds some hope before he was trapped lbw by Baker while attempting a reverse ramp.
Brook had been struck outside the line, but, calamitously for the Sunrisers, they had already used up all their reviews — thanks to an earlier wasteful one from skipper Zak Crawley.
From there, there was no way back for Leeds, and even though Ryan Rickelton did his best to make 54no off 34 balls, batting throughout the innings, Tongue’s 4-26 and Baker’s 2-39 ensured the Yorkshire outfit, at 7-166, were never in the hunt, losing eventually by 20 runs.
Earlier, the foundations of the Super Giants’ victory had been laid by 32-year-old Englishman Paul Walter, the old BBL-winning Brisbane Heat cult hero, who smashed 80 off 46 balls, while South African Heinrich Klaasen cracked 63 off 26.
One of Walter’s eight sixes came as a UK government wildfire alarm warning rang out on the mobile phones of thousands inside the ground.
Captain Jos Buttler chipped in with 33 off 20 and amid the carnage, Nathan Ellis did pretty well to go for only 1-28 off his 20 balls.
In Sunday’s (Monday AEST) final at Lord’s, Manchester will face a Trent Rockets side which boasts Tim David as a mid-order destroyer, although the Aussie has only mustered 90 runs in seven knocks so far while admitting he’s in the mood to go big.
AAP