New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) Former cricketer Aakash Chopra has heaped praise on Lucknow Super Giants opener Mitchell Marsh, lauding his attacking approach against Australian spearhead Josh Hazlewood after his blazing century helped Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) register a thrilling nine-run win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).

Marsh played a crucial role in LSG posting 209 runs in a rain-curtailed 19-over-a-side game, as he scored his first century for the side, taking just 49 balls, which is also the fastest by any LSG batter in IPL history. He scored 111 runs in 56 balls, laced wit nine fours and as many sixes.

Chopra believes that Marsh has the ability to shift the momentum by taking over the fast bowlers from the onset. “Marsh is the only batter in this entire LSG setup who has batted at the same position throughout the tournament. Everybody else has been moved around. He’s got the strength. He’s a very different kind of opener. He’s tall and has long levers and, therefore, goes downtown,” he told Jio Hotstar.

“The moment you start hitting fast bowlers over their heads and into the stands, where do you actually bowl to him? You can’t bowl short to him because he’s brilliant square of the wicket, and the way he took down Josh Hazlewood was phenomenal,” Chopra added.

While praising Marsh, Chopra has raised concerns over Hazlewood’s form as he has leaked away a lot of runs for the second consecutive time in the IPL. Hazlewood finished with the figures of 1-49 against LSG, which is very unlikely of the pacer, while in the previous match against the Gujarat Titans, he gave away 56 runs and remained wicketless.

“It’s twice in two games now that Josh has leaked a lot of runs. First, it was Shubman Gill, who took him down in Ahmedabad, and this time, it was Mitchell Marsh. RCB have also lost two on the bounce, so there is a correlation because if he goes for runs, then there are problems,” Chopra said

–IANS

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