Mitch Marsh on Steve Smith: "You come up with all these plans and none of them seem to work. He is a special player"
Saturday 16 December 2017 12:25, UK
Mitch Marsh wants to capitalise on England's "tiredness" in Perth and help Australia seal the Ashes with two games to spare.
Marsh (181no) scored his first Test ton on day three of the third Test at the WACA as Australia, 2-0 up in the series, eased to 549-4 to earn a 146-run lead over the beleaguered tourists.
Mitch's brother, Shaun, was the wicket to fall on Saturday, snaffled by Moeen Ali, as Mitch and Steve Smith (229no) shared an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 301.
"It was a great day for Australia - to only lose one wicket for the whole day has really put us in a strong position," said the all-rounder, who brought up his century from 131 deliveries on his home track.
"They are obviously tired - anytime you spend 140 overs in the dirt it's hard work and you walk off the ground very tired and sore.
"I am not sure we have broken their spirit but we've put ourselves in a very good position to win this match if we can bat well tomorrow [Sunday].
Smith's sparkling form continued as he notched the second double century of his career - his first also came against England, at Lord's in 2015 - and passed 1,000 Test runs for the fourth straight calendar year.
The Australia captain's 22nd Test ton was also his quickest, coming from just 138 balls, beating the 140 deliveries it took him to hit New Zealand for a hundred at the same venue in 2015.
"It felt really good yesterday - I was in the zone and I told the boys when I got back in last night that I was just getting started," Smith, who began the morning unbeaten on 92, said at stumps on day three.
"I wanted to cash in - I love scoring big runs for my country - and we wanted to be out in the middle and just keep batting."
Smith has now scored 18 hundreds in his last 37 Tests, only Don Bradman - with 22 - has scored more centuries within the same number of games.
Bradman (99.94) is also the only man with a higher Test batting average than Smith, the latter's now 62.89 following his unbeaten double in Perth.
"I have felt what it's like, captained against him when he played for New South Wales a couple of months ago," Marsh said of team-mate Smith.
"You come up with all these plans and none of them seem to work. He is a special player."
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