Marsh brothers revel with twin centuries
Neither of the siblings certain of making the cut for South Africa
It was understandable that Australian batsman Shaun Marsh got a bit carried away when his little brother Mitchell scored his century against England yesterday.
It was not only that his sibling had been at the other end when he himself had reached the magic milestone at the Sydney Cricket Ground little more than an hour earlier.
It was perhaps as much as anything because, only a few months ago, it looked highly unlikely that either brother would be wearing the baggy green against England.
Shaun, at 34 the older of the two by eight years, had been dumped from the Test side for the seventh time and lost his central contract, while Mitch was struggling to find his way back into international reckoning after a shoulder surgery.
It made their moment on a scorching hot Sydney morning all the sweeter and Shaun got so carried away he nearly ran Mitchell out as they completed the two runs that gave the younger brother his second Test ton.
“I pretty much went for the high-five and Shaun went for the hug,” said Mitchell. “We somewhere parked in the middle and had a quick split second level of panic and hugged again after that.”
Shaun was happy to take the blame. “I think emotions sort of got the better of me
England 1st innings: 346 Australia 1st innings
(Overnight: 479-4) C. Bancroft b Broad D. Warner c Bairstow b Anderson U. Khawaja st Bairstow b Crane S. Smith c and b Ali S. Marsh run out (Stoneman) M. Marsh b Curran T. Paine not out M. Starc c Vince b Ali P. Cummins not out
(2nb, 1w, 4lb, 2b) (for 7 wickets, decl)
1-1, 2-86, 274-3, 4-375, 5-544, 6-596, 7-613.
Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon.
Anderson 34-14-56-1, Broad 30-2-121-1, Ali 48-10-170-2, Curran 253-82-1 (1w), Crane 48-3-193-1 (2nb), Joe Root 8-3-21-0.
Extras: Total Fall of wickets:
Did not bat: Bowling: England 2nd innings
A. Cook b Lyon 10 M. Stoneman lbw b Starc 0 J. Vince c Smith b Cummins 18 J. Root not out 42 D. Malan lbw b Lyon 5 J. Bairstow not out 17
(1lb) 1 (for 4 wickets in 46 overs) 93
1-5, 2-15, 3-43, 4-68. Moeen Ali, Tom Curran, Stuart Broad, Mason Crane, Jimmy Anderson.
Starc 9-2-17-1, Hazlewood 9-1-26-0, Cummins 6-1-12-1, Lyon 19-6-31-2, Steve Smith 2-0-6-0.
Extras: Total Fall of wickets: Still to bat:
Bowling:
0 56 171 83 156 101 38 11 24 9 649 and I just wanted to give him a hug,” he said. “I saw him starting to celebrate and sort of lost all concept of where the ball was and what was happening with the ball.”
Neither brother, though, was prepared to consider yet whether they might retain their places for the tour of South Africa later this year.