STARC KEY TO OZ, SAYS ROD MARSH

Sydney, March 21: Former Australia opener and chief coach Geoff Marsh feels that speedster Mitchell Starc’s performance will be key for the home team in their upcoming World Cup semifinal clash against India at the SCG on Thursday.

“It will be a great contest as it involves two extremely competitive teams. India have shown a lot of consistency but at the same time Australia have a lot of quality. I will rate Australia’s chances as slightly better in the semifinals. Mitchell Starc’s performance could be decisive,” Marsh said. — PTI

The aesthetes can declare themselves most pleased. Another box in their wishlist was ticked by a touch player joining the band of double century scorers in ODIs. Martin Guptill is very easy on the eye as he sends the ball scampering to the fence with a deft touch and an inbuilt sense of timing rather than muscling them to the boundary and beyond in the most modern tradition of the big bashers.

Had anyone said the elegantly straight-driving Guptill would put his name up as the highest scorer ever in a World Cup match, he might have been recommended a visit to the psychiatrist or, better, to the betting tent to ask for odds on the feat, which would have been fancy indeed.

Very much a creature of the modern age, who is completely at home in the limited-overs arena, Guptill still eases them to the ropes with the touch of the stylist producing the most authentic drives.

He is one of the few with centuries in all three international formats — Test, ODI and T20 — even if his average in each one might not be something to crow about. What the Aucklander proved with his double century on Saturday is the sky is the limit these days in the shorter formats. Given a peach of a pitch on which every stroke fetched a good reward, Guptill’s naturally elegant game was sufficient to allow him to build to a state from which he