CHELMSFORD: As England melted on the hottest July day on record, Mitchell Marsh applied further heat - on Shane Watson, and the selectors.
A second hundred in two tour matches, this time a first-innings effort against a well-credentialled Essex attack, has ramped up his bid for a first Ashes Test berth and left Australian selectors with not just the kind of quandary they like to call a 'good headache to have' but a real dilemma about what to do in Cardiff next week.
Whenever Watson has been struggling in the past the assumption has been that he's held his place because, no matter how long his run between Test centuries might have been, there still wasn't another all-rounder in the country who could touch him.
Well, there is now.
Marsh's second ton of the tour - he was 136 not out after day one of the practice match - was another fine audition, made at a steadier pace than his spectacular ascent to three figures in Canterbury at the weekend but no less impressive.
There was at least one selection issue solved on Wednesday: Ryan Harris won't be in the mix for the first Test, after being a late withdrawal against Essex and heading off for scans as a result of knee soreness.
The Watson-Marsh situation, however, is about as clear as the River Can that runs by the Essex County Cricket Club.
Watson isn't exactly in bad nick. He added a run-a-ball 52 to his second-innings 81 against Kent but Marsh's twin tons - doubling his first-class tally of hundreds in the space of four days - have overshadowed his more senior teammate.
Marsh, however, is not getting carried away as the possibility of a recall increases with each of his performances.
"I'm not putting any pressure on myself," the 23-year-old said after Australia reached 6-440 on the first day. "It doesn't matter where you bat or bowl, if you take enough wickets and make enough runs the selectors are going to pick you at some stage.
"I'm just enjoying it and it's a privilege to be on this tour. I'll cross that bridge if it comes.
"I'll keep working hard and if the opportunity does come, I'll go from there."
While Marsh could hardly have advanced his cause more emphatically much will also depend on how selectors judge the pair's bowling at the close of this tour match on Saturday. Watson didn't bowl against Kent, given some latitude by management on that front, but came into this game knowing he needed to here.
Marsh said he had been busy improving his own bowling. "My bowling is something that I've just continued to work hard on with (Australian team bowling coach) Craig McDermott," he said. "I certainly feel like i'm improving and if you want to be successful in international cricket as a bowler, you've got to bowling pretty fast."
The only knock on Marsh, meanwhile, was his involvement in the run-out of state colleague Adam Voges for 49.
He went on to reach his century with a six that landed on the roof of the ground's Spinners Bar.
"I didn't see the ball land," Marsh said. "Peter Nevill (who scored 78) told me it was stuck in the roof, so it was quite funny out in the middle. Then we were back to business."
David Warner and Chris Rogers also resumed their opening partnership and Warner, in his first hit-out of the tour, took only 86 balls for an exquisite 94. Rogers, whose place in the Test line-up is under threat from Shaun Marsh, scored 21 but from his body language clearly did not believe he had hit the ball when he was given out caught behind from the bowling of Thomas Moore.
Michael Clarke was out for a golden duck on the next ball.
