Back in 2008, T20 cricket wasn’t all that popular. Every country had played a handful of international matches each and there wasn’t any popular T20 league with franchise teams that had players from across the world. That’s when the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) was announced, a year after the first ever T20 World Cup took place in South Africa.
8 franchise teams took part in the first edition of the IPL and one of them was Kings XI Punjab, a team that has had its ups and downs, one that has even made the IPL finals in the past but sadly, has never got its hand on the silverware as yet. That IPL 2008 season was no different for them – decent overall with sparks of individual brilliance from some players.
One of those players was overseas pick Shaun Marsh. Being one of the most dominant countries in world cricket, KXIP decided to fill their squad with Australian players and the older Marsh brother was one of them. The elegant left-hander was in the form of his life that season, and he was one of the main reasons that KXIP managed to win 10 of 14 league games and finish second on the points table in IPL 2008.
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Marsh played only 11 games but managed to win the first ever Orange Cap award for the most runs in the season, smashing 616 runs in 11 innings, batting at an average of 68.44 and including 5 fifties and 1 century. He capped off a beautiful league stage run with that century coming on this day itself, 28th May 2008, in Match 56 of the tournament against Rajasthan Royals.
No one expected such massive 200+ totals and individual centuries, but we saw a bunch of them in that opening season including Brendon McCullum’s record 158* on the opening night of IPL 2008 itself. As for Marsh, he scored a graceful ton at the fag end of the season, hitting 115(69), opening the innings that season for KXIP.
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Opening the innings with countryman James Hopes, the duo put up a mammoth opening partnership of 133 while the then captain Yuvraj Singh came out and blazed 46(16) as they were propelled to 221/3, eventually winning by a wide margin of 41 runs. Needless to say, Marsh was awarded the Man of the Match award for his innings that included 11 fours and 7 sixes!
That innings took place on this day 12 years ago but sadly, that was Marsh’s only entry in the list of all-time IPL centuries (until 28th May 2020). We keep bringing you some of the best flashbacks in Indian cricketing history and for more updates from the world of sports and cricket, you can stay tuned to ReadScoops.com.
