Perth Scorchers captain Ashton Turner is optimistic that star allrounder Mitch Marsh will recover from his hamstring injury in time for next Friday's BBL final.
Marsh didn't field after experiencing tightness in his right hamstring while stroking 28 in the Scorchers' comprehensive 48-run win over the Sydney Sixers in Saturday's qualifier in Melbourne.
The Scorchers, now clear title favourites, face an anxious few days sweating on the fitness of Marsh, who's in the form of his life after crunching 342 runs at 68.40 this campaign.
His excellent contributions have come on the back of claiming player-of-the-match honours in Australia's T20 World Cup final triumph over New Zealand last November.
"He's a superstar, and he's playing beautifully at the moment," Turner said.
"He's not the only player on our team but we're a better team with him in it.
"I'd suggest it would have to be pretty bad for Mitch to not play in the final."
Scorchers coach Adam Voges is bullish on Marsh's prospects.
"Just a bit of tightness from what I can understand," Voges said.
"I had a good chat with our physio and he seems to think it's at the minor end of some tightness.
"All his strength testing was pretty good, so (it was) cautionary to not put him on the field.
"We'll monitor him over the next little bit and hopefully he'll be okay."
Openers Josh Inglis (79) and Kurtis Patterson (64) ripped the match away from the Sixers from the outset before the Scorchers attack, spearheaded by Ashton Agar (2-16) and Jhye Richardson (2-21), reduced the two-time reigning champions to a disastrous 7-55 in reply.
Turner rated the win as the Scorchers' best performance of the season.
"We got ourselves off to a great start in this tournament and since about the halfway point we've had a big focus on not peaking too early," Turner said.
"We want to play our best cricket in big games.
"Fortunately for us, tonight was as good as we've played."
Australian Associated Press
