India A vs Australia 2017, Practice Match: Twin Tons From Shaun Marsh, Steven Smith Power Australia To 327/5
Feb 17, 2017 at 6:22 PM
Shaun Marsh and captain Steven Smith scored unbeaten hundreds as Australia scored 327 for five on day one of the three-day practice match against India A at CCI in Mumbai.
India A captain Hardik Pandya won the toss and asked Australia to bat first. David Warner and Matt Renshaw had their share of runs early on before Haryana’s Navdeep Saini nicked both them to Ishan Kishan on 25 and 11 respectively.
Australian middle-order then came to the rescue and kept their side’s boat flowing in the game. The pair consisted of captain Steven Smith and Shaun Marsh, two of the better players of spin bowling, started off well, as they showed patience and skill to come on top of India A bowlers. Realizing the attack isn’t up to the international scale, the duo didn’t take things lightly and kept on putting runs on board.
The left-right combination was doing the trick for the visitors, as both of them were successful in completing their centuries in meantime. Later, captain Smith retired at 107* while Marsh walked back on unbeaten 104.
Rookie Peter Handscomb contributed with bat too. He scored a gritty 45 before getting out to skipper Pandya. Mitchell Marsh, who is quite keen to cement the number sixth spot in the side, carried his bat on 16 at stumps on day one.
Score on Day 1:
Australia – 327/5; Steven Smith 107*(199), Shaun Marsh 104*(225), Navdeep Saini 2/27.