Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], May 22 : Mitchell Marsh took a step closer towards breaking former captain KL Rahul's record for most runs in a single Indian Premier League (IPL) season for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) after his scorching maiden ton in the cash-rich league.
Marsh lit the Ahmedabad sky with his swashbuckling century and became the first overseas player to hit the three-digit mark in the 18th season of the IPL during Lucknow's fixture against Gujarat Titans (GT). Marsh adopted a ferocious approach and went berserk at anything loose that came towards him.
In one particular instance, he decimated GT's premier spinner, Rashid Khan, and became a walking nightmare for the Afghanistan ball tweaker. In a single over, he tonked 25 runs by unleashing a fusillade of boundaries. Marsh's record-shattering exploits came to an end at 117 from 64 deliveries, laced with a staggering 10 boundaries and eight towering maximums.
Following his recent adventure, Marsh boasts 560 runs in the ongoing season, 57 shy of breaking Rahul's tally of 616. He could etch his name in the history book during Lucknow's final group stage fixture against Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
Marsh's blitzkrieg and Nicholas Pooran's finishing touches fuelled Lucknow's innings as they blazed past to a daunting 235/2. Lucknow struck 17 sixes, the highest they have in an innings in the tournament's history. Besides Marsh's tally of eight, Pooran, Aiden Markram, and skipper Rishabh Pant chipped in two each. Pant struck two in the final over, which cleared Lucknow's way to a highly competitive target.
In reply, Gujarat's illustrious opening pair, Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan, tried to set the tempo early on with a flurry of boundaries. They raised a 46-run opening stand before Sai's dismissal and now boast the highest partnership average in IPL with a minimum of 1000 runs. Gill and Sai boast an average of 67.70, bettering David Warner and Jonny Bairstow's 56.04.