Shaun Marsh is back – and he’s dragged Western Australia’s Sheffield Shield final hopes along with him.
After three straight ducks, Marsh played one of the gutsiest innings of his career against NSW in Canberra 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 at tea on day three and help the visitors set NSW a tricky victory target of 213 on a tricky Manuka Oval wicket.
NSW, WA and South Australia were all locked on 26 points heading into this final round, meaning the winner will secure a berth in next week’s final.
Following a shaky start, Marsh played a steady knock 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.
Marsh received good support from Sam Whiteman (36), Wednesday’s five-wicket hero Ashton Agar (24), and Jason Behrendorff (20).
To give an idea of just how skilful a knock it was from Marsh, nobody in the three innings played so far 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 2.3 per over for the majority of the match, WA’s target will prove difficult to chase down on a pitch that has typically been a batsman’s paradise.