Australia's T20I captain Marsh has worked wonders at the top of the order this campaign, trying to pummel the Justin Langer-coached Lucknow Super Giants towards the playoffs, only to be frustrated to miss out on making the knockouts in what he calls the best tournament in the world.
But despite being their elimination, the 33-year-old powerhouse was still determined to keep thrashing on Thursday in Lucknow's penultimate match of the season at Ahmedabad as he roared to his first ever IPL ton in his 48th knock to propel the Super Giants to a consolation 33-run win.
It was the first century by an overseas player all season and took him to a total of 560 runs in just 12 innings, a tally only surpassed by the Indian trio of Sai Sudharsan (638), Shubman Gill (636) and Suryakumar Yadav (583).
The eight booming sixes in his 64-ball 117 took his total of maximums to 32, a collection only bettered by his teammate Nicholas Pooran, who added another five in his 56no on Thursday to bring his tally to 40.
Marsh has been Langer's mainstay this season and some of his power hitting has been staggering, like the 25 he took off the leg-spinning wizard Rashid Khan in his first over - 6, 4, 6, 4, 4, 1.
He added 121 off just 52 balls with Pooran and reached his hundred off 56 balls — only his second in all T20 cricket after the 100no he made for Perth Scorchers in a Big Bash match in 2021.
It was a particularly striking effort after he had struggled to get off to a flyer, making just 19 off his first 15 balls.
Marsh finally fell in the penultimate over, and shrugged later: "In T20s these days, if you're 12 off 12 balls and not timing it well, it's panic stations. But today showed you can bat through and go on to stitch big partnerships."
Indeed, his tour de force enabled Lucknow to make a monster 2-235 with tall New Zealand quick Will O'Rourke then taking 3-27 to help restrict Gujarat to 9-202, with Shahrukh Khan's top-scoring 57 off 29 balls proving far from enough.
For Marsh, the century felt like the reward for a "long journey" that had begun when he was playing for Deccan Chargers back in 2010, but the frustration of missing out on the playoffs still hurt.
"It's been disappointing, all teams come in to win it but the IPL is a beast of a competition, you've got to be on it every game," he said.
"Any team can beat any team and that makes it the best tournament in the world."
