Mitchell Marsh walks off after being caught in the slips for 96.Credit:AP
But the latest disappointment of missing a century was offset by his part in the resurrection of Australia from a calamitous 4-16 in a partnership of 153 with Smith.
“It’s obviously disappointing,” Marsh said of missing the century. “I thought we’d navigated our way out of a tricky situation in a partnership with Smudger.
“There’s a lot of history at this ground with the Boxing Day Test and a bloody big honours board that I was close to getting on,but it wasn’t meant to be,” Marsh added philosophically.
History says that a 300-run lead is the magic number for Australia. Only one team has scored that many in the last innings of an MCG Test for victory:England with 7-332 in 1928-29. No team has managed to make the current lead in the last innings to win at the MCG since Australia’s 8-258 against the West Indies during 1960-61.
“I think that if we were all out now we would feel very much in the game,” Marsh said. “I don’t necessarily want to put a number on it for our bowlers,but we know that they can certainly hold the bat,so a couple of good partnerships hopefully we can get up towards the 300 mark,but I guess anything from here we’ll take.”
Marsh has made 540 runs in five Tests at an average of 68 since replacing Cameron Green – the man who looked set to become Australia’s finest all-rounder since Keith Miller – midway through the Ashes tour.