Like father Like son, Shaun Marsh emulates Daddy Geoff’s feat after 31 years!

Shaun Marsh graced into an Indian cricket field for a first-class match at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai for the first time and scored a century. A repeat of what his father, Geoff Marsh managed to do 31 years ago in 1986, when he opened the innings with David Boon for Australia versus the Ravi Shastri-led Board President’s XI at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Shaun entered the scene with Australia at 55/2 and joined captain Steven Smith. He took his time to settle down with a slow start scoring six off twenty-six balls. He went on to score his fifty in 86 balls. He had his share of luck when he was dropped on 88 by Navdeep Saini at short mid-wicket off the bowling of Akhil Herwadkar. He went on to score his maiden first-class ton on Indian soil with the help of 11 fours and a six in 173 balls.

He retired on 104 to make way for his brother Mitchell. India A was further hit by agony when K Gowtham had a hamstring niggle in the post lunch session and captain Hardik Pandya had to sort for some part-time spin, with regular spinner Shadab Nadeem going wicketless, despite being accurate.

Marsh Sr., Geoff, had scored 139 runs and put up 116 runs with fellow opener David Boon, in reply to the Board President XI’s 239 all out. Pradeep Sundaram and Pradeep Kasliwal, both from Mumbai, opened the bowling for BP XI. Pradeep recalled that Geoff too had his share of luck early in the innings when lanky spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan put him down at gully. ‘A classic innings followed with many shots square of the wicket’, recalls Pradeep.

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Shaun after scoring the hundred said, “It always gives you a bit of confidence when you have a good day in a warm-up game. It was nice to spend some time out in the middle. Smithy batted really well and all the other batters got a bit out of it as well. So it was a good day.”

He has been a star performer in India during his IPL stint with Kings XI Punjab and is likely to make the Test squad, posing a threat to Usman Khawaja, who has been in good nick off late. A proven record in the sub-continent conditions and the solid technique displayed against the Sri Lankans, in otherwise forgettable Aussie tour of Sri Lanka, may prompt the selectors to choose Shaun over Usman.

Written by Rameez Mannil