Cricket World Cup: Australia's Mitchell Marsh welcomes improvement of lesser nations
- Planet Sport writer
- 24 October 2023
Australia batter Mitchell Marsh has welcomed the improvement of lesser nations at the World Cup in India, calling it "great for world cricket".
Five-time champions Australia meet the Netherlands in Delhi on Wednesday keen to avoid slipping on the sort of banana skin that has tripped up England, Pakistan and South Africa at the tournament.
Afghanistan have taken the scalps of England and Pakistan to raise hopes of a semi-final spot, while the Netherlands stunned South Africa in Dharmashala.
"Teams have got better and I think that's great for world cricket, certainly in tournaments like this that can be pretty long," said Marsh.
"We've said multiple times in this tournament there are no easy games.
"This game is no different for us. We respect the Netherlands, they're playing some good cricket and it will be a tough challenge."
Australia have recovered from opening defeats to India and South Africa to revive top-four ambitions with wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Marsh made 52 and 121 at the top of the order in those games, but may bat at three should Travis Head be fit after fracturing his hand six weeks ago.
"Every game from here on in is really important," said Marsh. "Some teams have lost a couple, and every World Cup game is high pressure and high stakes.
"We had a slow start and we were put under pressure at times. But we've played really good cricket in the last two games, and our vibe is high."
Netherlands all-rounder Logan van Beek hopes the team can break boundaries after presenters on a prime-time Dutch TV talk show joked on Monday that their win over South Africa was bigger news "overseas than here".
Van Beek said: "I hope that another of couple wins, they can almost stop joking about cricket in the Netherlands and they start talking seriously about how this is actually one of our best sports teams in the country."
