Australia and a struggling Mitchell Marsh sent out a strong warning ahead of Thursday’s World Cup semi-final against South Africa: Don’t mess with us.
The Aussies – with Marsh leading the chorus – thundered Bangladesh by eight wickets in Pune and thus made a run chase of 307 runs look like child’s play.
Marsh smashed 177 unbeaten runs from just 132 deliveries and his innings included nine big sixes.
It was his second century of the World Cup in India and the highest score of his career.
According to captain Pat Cummins, Australia is playing its best cricket in the run-up to the play-offs.
The latest victory is the Aussies’ seventh victory in a row and, as usual, they are once again one of the favorite teams to walk away with the ultimate laurels.
“In a few of the games, we didn’t fire on all cylinders at all, but we were still able to walk away from the field victorious. To successfully chase scores of 300 runs is something we have struggled with before and it feels like everything is falling into place at the right time,” said Cummins.
He also sang Marsh’s praises.
“Mitchell was excellent. What particularly impressed me is the way in which he rounded off his innings – he didn’t take his foot off the accelerator at all. He batted at a sustainable pace and other teams should be scared of him.”
- Summary of the scorecard:
Bangladesh 306/8 in 50 overs: Towhid Hridoy 74, Najmul Hossain Shanto 45 and Adam Zampa 2/32.
Australia 307/2 in 44.4 overs: Mitchell Marsh 177*, Steven Smith 63* and Taskin Ahmed 1/61.
