Shaun Marsh’s maiden Ashes century puts Australia on top of England at Adelaide Oval

SHAUN Marsh gave his extraordinary journey a stunning rebirth in Adelaide with a fighting hundred before the rain arrived late on Day 2 to rescue England from Mitchell Starc.

Shaun Marsh celebrates his century on Day 2 in Adelaide.

ON THE ground where his father’s career ended suddenly, Shaun Marsh gave his extraordinary journey a stunning rebirth.

The most maligned Australian cricketer since Shane Watson produced a landmark Ashes century which has shaped the course of the second Test and pushed England to the brink in Adelaide.

Australia’s selectors were spectacularly vindicated over two of the most controversial picks in recent times, with Marsh and Tim Paine batting the house down and guaranteeing England would have to go into bat at the exact moment when Mitchell Starc could wreak havoc under lights.

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In the end it was only the unseasonal Adelaide weather which may have saved Joe Root’s men from what could have ended up complete carnage, with Starc’s night-time assault stopped by rain with the scoreboard reading 1-29.

However, Australia are in complete and utter control with a lead of 413, after Marsh’s scintillating 126 not out drove the hosts to an emphatic declaration at 8/442.

Starc ruthlessly fired out England opener Mark Stoneman after hitting 150kmh on the speed gun from his first over, but Alastair Cook was saved from the gallows and has a chance to launch one of the great rescue missions.

Shaun Marsh celebrates his hundred.

Tim Paine raises the bat after his half-century.

Marsh has had nine incarnations in the Australian team, but the 34-year-old saved his best for last in a year when he lost his CA contract and was dropped for the tour of Bangladesh.

After a 16-year journey punctuated by chronic injury and form fluctuations, Marsh now has five Test centuries to take him past the proud mark set by his father, Geoff, who was one of Australia’s hard-yakka warriors.

“There was a few emotions there. I’m just obviously extremely happy to get a hundred for my country and to get a hundred in an Ashes is pretty special,” Marsh said.

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“I haven’t really thought about all the external noise with my selection and the team. I’ve just tried to come in and be nice and relaxed and I’ve felt really good within my game over the last three or four months.

“I wasn’t too sure (if I was done for). Trevor Hohns rang me and said the door wasn’t shut but six months ago I wasn’t sure whether I’d be back here. I always dreamt of getting back in.”

Pat Cummins’ superb 44 in a century partnership with Marsh further embarrassed Root over his decision to bowl first and this Test has officially become a nightmare for England.

Mitchell Starc celebrates the wicket of Mark Stoneman.

Ground staff struggle to lay the covers as the rain and wind arrives in Adelaide.

Paine’s momentum-shifting half century was as courageous a knock as they come, but Australia are now sweating on how the keeper’s troubled right index finger pulls up after he copped some brutal blows.

Marsh was quite likely a boy in the stand at Adelaide back in 1992 when on the last day of an Indian Test, Geoff was dropped – making Allan Border so irate he stayed in the dressing room and rang the chairman of selectors while the rest of the team took the field.

However, a generation on and the selectors’ faith in the Marsh name may clinch Australia the Ashes urn.

England’s disastrous day was summed up by a near-horror moment in the field on the stroke of dinner, when James Vince knocked a catch out of Alastair Cook’s hands as the slips both went for the same ball and were desperately lucky not to collide more dangerously.

Tim Paine and Shaun Marsh chat to James Anderson.

Desperate for runs from their No.6 after years of batting collapses, Marsh was given the call despite it flying in the face of the selectors’ move towards youth 12 months ago.

Marsh was in the form of his career according to coach Justin Langer to start the domestic season and has more than justified his selection with a half century in the first Test at the Gabba that was the absolutely critical support act to Steve Smith’s match-winning ton.

Now he has a hundred of his own and for an understated man, Marsh celebrated the milestone with pure joy.

Following a protracted delay as Joe Root tinkered with his field, Marsh smashed a pull shot to the fence to take Australia past 400 and him towards the pavilion where he leapt into the air before going back to embrace his applauding teammate Cummins.

Originally published as Shaun Marsh’s maiden Ashes century puts Australia on top of England at Adelaide Oval