Mitchell Marsh happy to play his part as Australia continue to dominate second test
Medium pacer ends strong England partnership on recall to side as tourists look set for victory
Mitchell Marsh was glad to play his part as Australia continued to dominate the second Ashes test against England at Lord’s on Saturday.
At the close of the third day, Australia were 108 without loss in their second innings, a lead of 362 runs.
Chris Rogers was 44 not out and David Warner, missed on nought, 60 not out.
England, having collapsed to 30 for four on Friday in the face of aggressive fast bowling led by left-armer Mitchell Johnson, checked Australia’s progress with a fifth-wicket partnership of 145 between captain Alastair Cook (96) and Ben Stokes (87).
However, both batsmen were denied hundreds when, having survived against the quicks, they played on to medium-pacer Marsh, with Stokes the first to fall.
Marsh, recalled to the side after fellow all-rounder Shane Watson was dropped following England’s 169-run win in the first Test in Cardiff last week, said he was happy to take wickets in whichever way they came.
“It was nice to get those wickets like that, it doesn’t matter how you get them, I’ll take a few more chop ons in the second innings,” Marsh said after stumps.
“The attack we’ve got, I’m certainly not going to try to blast blokes out,” said Marsh, appearing in his fifth test but first since facing India at Brisbane in December.
“But wherever the skipper [Michael Clarke] needs me I just want to be there for him and bowl whenever,” added the 23-year-old son of former Ashes-winning opener Geoff Marsh.
England, 254 runs behind on first innings alone after Australia piled up 566 for eight declared, already have a mountain to climb.
The highest fourth-innings total to win a Test at Lord’s came when the West Indies made 344 for one against England in 1984 on the back of opener Gordon Greenidge’s unbeaten 214 and Larry Gomes’s 92 not out.
England’s corresponding record is the 332 for seven the compiled to beat Australia at Melbourne back in 1928/29, when legendary opener Herbert Sutcliffe made 135.
For all their recent talk of playing “aggressive” cricket, Stokes accepted a draw was the most England could hope for in this match.
“We spoke briefly in the changing room there at the end and we’ve got to get our heads round the fact we’re probably going to have to bat 150 overs to try to save the game,” explained the Durham all-rounder.
That’s easier said than done but, with the pitch at Lord’s unlikely to deteriorate significantly over the next two days, Stokes said conditions were in favour of what would be a great escape.
“If there’s ever a wicket to do it on, it’s this one,” he said.
“I probably only need one word for it – flat. There’s no real demons in it, not too much pace and not too much turn.”
As for England’s top-order collapse, Stokes said: “Looking back we’ve just got to assess ’did we choose the correct shots, and did we execute what we wanted to do?’.
“We probably didn’t, but it’s something to learn from.”
