It was only a matter of time before Mitch Marsh' season really took flight in this year's IPL and the Australian T20 captain got his timing just right as he delivered the spectacular matchwinning century that's kept Lucknow Super Giants' distant hopes afloat.
Even though his knock got interrupted three times by rain stoppages on Thursday, nothing could stop Marsh's torrent of nine sixes and nine fours as the 'Bison' trampled over the Royal Challengers Bengaluru attack with his 111 off 56 balls at Lucknow's Ekana Stadium.
Put in to bat on the day after Punjab's Cooper Connolly had been the first Aussie to ton up in the 2026 edition, Marsh took an early liking to his old mate Josh Hazlewood's bowling, taking two huge straight sixes off his first over, the second of which bopped a TV cameraman on the forehead.
Hazlewood went for 49 off his four overs but at least finally got his man when Marsh blasted his wide full toss to deep point, having enjoyed belting his second career IPL ton which he reached off 49 balls. Marsh had clocked Hazlewood for 27 all told.
"Unbelievable ... amazing batting from Mitch," gushed Marsh's admiring Lucknow skipper Rishabh Pant, who gave the rain-reduced 19-over innings a spectacular finale with 32 off 10 as Lucknow compiled 3-209.
After a target readjustment to 213 under DLS following the rain interruptions, Bengaluru lost Jacob Bethell for two and Virat Kohli for a duck in the first eight balls.
But a brisk 61 from captain Rajat Patidar kept them in the hunt and when their Australian 'finisher king' Tim David got to work, thumping three sixes and four fours, Lucknow, who knew they were out if they lost a seventh match on the bounce, were panicking.
But once David fell for 40 off 17 balls, angry with himself for tamely slapping one to cover point, the ask became too much, even though Krunal Pandya (28no) and Romario Shepherd (23no) dragged the match into the final over, with RCB eventually falling short by nine runs on DLS.
For Marsh, after five scores between 35 and 55 during the season, it was a relief to finally get a big one on the board for the Justin Langer-coached outfit who are propping up the table.
"It has been a tough season, so it's nice to get on the right side of one. It's been a disappointing season until today," said the 34-year-old. "But this is really good for morale and there's still a lot for us to play for."
