In the nineteenth century, the indigenous Australian player
Johnny Mullagh, who toured England in
1868, liked to play a shot that could be interpreted as a scoop shot or similar: "Dropping on one knee to a fast rising ball, he would hold his bat over his shoulder and parallel to the ground. The ball would touch the blade, and shoot high over the wicket-keeper's head to the boundary." The cricket journalist
Scyld Berry credits the
England and
Hampshire batsman
George Brown with playing the first recorded paddle scoop. The shot was developed by Zimbabwean batsman
Dougie Marillier. In a triangular tournament in 2001 in
Australia with
Zimbabwe,
Australia and
West Indies, Zimbabwe played their final match with Australia, and Marillier got a chance in the team. He could hardly have had a more testing experience, as a fine Zimbabwe batting performance after Australia scored 303 meant that he came in at number seven needing to score 15 to win the match in the final over, which was to be bowled by
Glenn McGrath. Marillier moved across to the first and third balls he received from McGrath and flicked them over his shoulder to
fine leg for boundaries, reviving hopes of an incredible Zimbabwe victory. But he was just unable to complete the job, and his team lost by two runs. His two courageous and unorthodox boundary strokes made him famous, with the shot becoming known as the Marillier shot. Marillier continued to do reasonably well for the national side. In 2002, he "Marilliered" Zimbabwe to a famous win in
India in a
One Day International at Faridabad, with India 56
not out at the death, although this time he used the shot against
Zaheer Khan. == Joe Root variant ==