Smith lauds 'outstanding' Marsh post Caribbean tri-series triumph

Australian skipper Steve Smith has lavished praise on his team-mate Mitchell Marsh after the latter's match-winning performance guided the side to a 58-run win against hosts West Indies in the ODI tri-series final at Kensington Oval.

Marsh finished with the figures of 3-32 in 10 overs and also contributed significant 32 runs in his side's innings of 270-9.

Describing Marsh as 'outstanding', Smith admitted that he was quite impressed with the way the all-rounder used his bowling variation in the match.

"There was a patch of grass where the ball was doing a few different things. We wanted the right-armers to hit that back of a length, try and get the ball to react differently and I thought the way Mitchell used his variations today was spot on," the 27-year-old was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

"He hit a beautiful area and let the ball do its thing. He got the ball through at quite good pace at times as well so it was nice to see him in good rhythm,"Smith, who fell just four runs short of his half-century,added.

Smith believes that Marsh has come a long way in the series and gained a lot of confidence from his overall performance.

"He batted well the other day and I guess he's just going to gain a lot more confidence from what he did the other day and what he did today as well," the skipper insisted.

Opting to bat first, Australia posted a difficult target of 271 runs, thanks to Mathew Wade (unbeaten at 57) and Aaron Finch (47).

In reply, the Caribbean side were bundled out in 45.4 overs despite some resilient efforts by Johnson Charles (45) and Denesh Ramdin (40).

Besides Marsh, Josh Hazlewood bagged five wickets while Adam Zampa and Nathan-Coulter Neil chipped in with a wicket each to help their side win the tri-series.

Marsh was declared 'man of the match' while Hazlewood was adjudged 'man of the series'.

Australia will now play their first series in Sri Lanka since 2011, starting from July 26.