CWC2023: Marsh smashes 177 as Australia outplay Bangladesh for 7th consecutive win

 

Australia defeated Bangladesh in their last match of the round robin stage in the World Cup.  They won by chasing record runs.  Bangladesh couldn't find any answer to Mitchell Marsh's breathtaking batting.  Earlier they scored 306 runs by batting first but there was no problem for Australia to play on the Pune pitch.  Marsh single-handedly defeated Bangladesh.  If Glenn Maxwell was the player in the previous match, Marsh is undoubtedly the star in this match.

 Australia won the toss and elected to bowl first.  Although none of Bangladesh's batsmen could play an innings of big runs, almost everyone contributed.  76  runs came for the first wicket as Aussie quicks once again struggled to take powerplay wickets .  Tanzid Hasan and Litton Das both scored 36 runs batting fluently .  Captain Nazmul Hossain did not get a half century due to a run out  for 45.  However, for the third wicket, Touhid made a partnership of 64 runs with Shanto.  Touhid (74) scored a lone half-century and batted superbly . Mahmudullah (32) , Mushfiqur (21) and Mehidy (29) played cameos to get Bangladesh to 306/8 . Zampa and Abbott took 2 wickets each 

 Taskin Ahmed dismissed  Travis Head (10)  early  , but Australia did not look back after that.  David Warner and Mitchell Marsh both started aggressively.  Marsh started by hitting Mahedi Hasan with three consecutive fours with powerful hits .  Warner also continued to play at the other end.

After Warner's return with 53 runs, the run rate slowed down a bit.  But Steve Smith on the other hand did not let any danger happen.  Marsh's run rate never slowed down.  He did the same way he did the beginning as he hit his typical straight down the ground and over midwicket sixes  and drove fiercely through the off side .  There was drama at some point in the middle of the match.  In the 39th over, a shot by Steve Smith off Mustafizur Rahman smashed the opposite wicket.  At that moment the non-striker Marsh left the crease.  Mustafizur claimed that the ball hit his feet.  So Marsh is run out.  Marsh also began to return to the dressing room without arguing.

 But Smith interrupted.  He kept saying to the umpire that the ball did not hit Mustafizur's leg in any way.  The umpires disallowed Marsh from going back and enlisted the help of a third umpire.  It can be seen that the ball did not really hit Mustafizur's feet.  Marsh did not stop after that.  In the last two balls of that over, Marsh completed his 150 by hitting two consecutive fours.

 In the next over, he hit Mustafizur again for a four and a six.  Smith (63 not out) won the match by hitting the same bowler for four in the 45th over.

Marsh for his 177 not out  off 132 balls with 17 fours and 9 sixes was the obvious choice for the player of the match.