Have Watson's fifteen sixes lifted Aussie morale?

Kersi, I've been away for a couple of days, hence this belated response. I agree the Australians do have a spring in their step, which is good to see. I'm not a hater of Generation Y in general or Michael Clarke in particular, and I reckon he'll be a good captain in the Mark Taylor mode. I also think the added responsibility of captaincy will improve his batting. Shane Watson will continue to grow in stature, although it would be good to see him bat at No 6 and bowl more. As you've written elsewhere, we really need a true all-rounder. Ponting and Hussey will keep scoring runs, I have no doubt about that. It's good to see Ponting carry on. But what about the bowlers? The oldest cliche in the book is that bowlers win Test matches, and it's true. No good scoring 700 if you can't bowl the other mob out twice. The pace cupboard looks a bit bare; let's pray that Pat Cummins doesn't get bowled into the ground. The spin cupboard is not so much bare as non-existent. Unless the bowling improves sharply, we're looking at a tough two or three years. We live in hope.

A thunderous 72 off 40 balls from Shane Watson today, enriched with11 fours and 3 sixes in the 3rd ODI against Bangladesh. That makes it 26 fours and18 sixes in 3 days. A record? Also 257 runs at 257.00 off 132 balls in two ODIs; a Strike Rate of 194.70. Another record?

That horse is not talking horse sense. Or, most probably, covering his arse. Anyone with the basest understanding of the caper would have seen the bowling was nude, give or take the odd reasonable delivery. There are Mongolian woodcutters who would have realised the bowling was sub-district cod ordinary.

Here is something from the "horse's" mouth. Indian journalist Bipin Dani interviewed Bangladeshi 23-year-old slow left-arm orthodox bowler, Suhrawadi Shuvo, whose third over produced 27 runs including four sixes by Shane Watson. Said Shuvo, "Well, it was his day and we could just not stop him. Whatever good delivery we were bowling were not good enough and he was unstoppable right from the word go. He was hitting hard even to the good bowling".

All I am saying, Bayman, is that this is a step in the right direction. It has boosted Australia's morale. To give an analogy, the opponents are 1-150, then a couple of wickets fall and the score becomes 3-170. Still it's a big score but the bowlers get spring in their feet. Watson has given this lift to our flagging psyche. That's all. The problems are not sorted out yet but, to use a cliche, we can see light at the end of the tunnel with Watto and Clarkey holding the torch.

There's no polite way to put this - the Tigers have dogged it and played for averages once the game's been acknowledged as lost. The Rock, Sakib, Mahmandullah and Rahim have all done this, and while I dont blame them, Ireland hit out looking for a miracle and it worked. PS Carna Tiges

B2 if you have been reading The Roar you would know that most Roarers have been frustrated with Ponting as captain for a couple of years. I have been very happy to belittle Pontings captaincy...he was disastrous. Plus, I don't see many responses above regaling Watson's innings as a new dawn, which is what the article suggested. Nothing revealing about the Australian psyche really.

Kersi, The fifteen sixes may have lifted Watto's morale but I'm still suffering a bit. The difference between Test cricket and ODIs has been perfectly illustrated in the two games played so far. He who has the most runs, wins. So far we are two and zip against the Bangli's but we still haven't managed to bowl thm out. Admittedly, we went past them only one down in this recent encounter but if it was a Test match we may still be playing. It perfectly illustrates the truth that Test match requirements are vastly different from the shorter versions as evidenced, perhaps, by the recent Ashes series (3-1 to England) versus the following ODI series (6-1 to Australia). The best thing we can say is that our One Day team is travelling a bit better than that of Bangladesh - at least for now. Luckily for us, our bowlers can stop after 50 overs and it doesn't matter how many wickets they took - as long as our batsmen made more runs.

*shrug* Sometimes these things happen to you - it was a great innings by Watson. To give you an idea of the quality of the innings, the bowling attack was pretty much the same one that held England to 225 in the World Cup on a similar pitch and a similar ground. I'll say again - it's a pity these sides arent playing Test matches, as it would both be good games and answer some needed questions about the Australian bowling attack. PS Mahmadullah's quality - play him at 4, if not three.

Well done Watson, but he played just as good an innings against a better attack earlier this year. One innings means nothing in the context of saying that the Aussies are improving, especially considering how mediocre were the performances in the two big matches just gone in the World Cup. Wait till we are playing genuinely strong opposition to start saying that.

I can see by the response to this article what it takes to make Australian fan tick. Truly a amazing innings , even though I did not see it , the figures speak for themselves. However, too early to make a STATEMENT! A change from Ponting to Clarke cannot make them a better team overnight.That would mean belittling the Australian team and their captaincy till last month.and which lasted years quite successfully!

Can only be a positive. We need to find a proper opener to partner Watson in ODI's. Haddin is just not up to opening. As the world cup final showed Australia is still living in the past. India won batting second and MS Dhoni won the game batting down the order.

That was an Outstanding innings by watson, really awesome, we miss him for this year's IPL matches too.

As phenomenal as Watson's innings was, in the bigger scheme of things it will likely only represent a very small piece in the complex puzzle of rebuilding the Australian cricket juggernaut. I have to say I have a good feeling about the combination of Clarke and Watson in the leadership roles. Both players are arguably in the prime of their careers, and Watson is certainly in the richest vein of form of his. As to where the team's fortunes are headed, the six months from August '11 to January '12 will reveal much - Sri Lanka, South Africa, and India will all test the Aussies metal.

Was it really the same size as the gabba? If it was that's an impressive performance. From the highlights I saw they were real up an under sixes not the flat bat drives you normally see. Good performance and Australian record but I still don't think it says anything about the state of the game. Bangladesh may be better than previous years with a few quality individuals but it is still a team game and it is obvious that Australia is much stronger.

Not rude. It means Flat Track Bullies. Our batting is capable of murdering pie chuckers, but struggles against both good variety speedsters and quality spin. While the Watto swatto was impressive, the bowling was very much your common and garden baked confection. He was dropped off an absolute sitter, too.

Your team utterly smashing the other team in their conditions has to lift morale surely - although maybe a great team performance would lift it more than an amazing individual performance - even one as amazing as this. Can an individual performance (particularly in a one day game - plenty of one day games get one by a single outstanding innings) create or at least signal a new era? To me, no. To do that I think you generally would need more or a team performance, preferably overcoming odds or preconceptions - say getting out of a bad position, or beating a much higher rated opponent - and preferably with new players coming to the fore. And even then it has to be followed up! When have individual performances heralded a new era? For Australian cricket maybe Dean Jones' 200 in the tied test in 1986? Or Mark Taylor's avalanche of runs and Steve Waugh breaking through with a couple of big hundreds v England in 1989? Steve Waugh's 200 v WI in 1995? Even listing those possibilities indicates that you can look back and identify a "turning point" but the reality is it's more of a progression or a series of steps (and it's not done without back up - Matthews, Border, Boon, Bright in 1986; Border, Boon, Jones, Alderman, Lawson in 1989; McGrath, Reiffel, Warne and Mark Waugh in 2005). Maybe this is a first step - but we won't know for years to come!

thanks Kersi. I had it in my head that Hayden also made 185, but it was 181 of course. Remember way back when Dean Jones' brutal-at-the-time 145* at the old 'Gabba was the benchmark?? Almost seems run-of-the-mill now... And I can't believe some people are wanting to cut down Watson's innings?!? You are allowed to give credit where it's due, sheesh!! Who cares who it was against, or how big the ground is, or how flat the track was?? Go out and try and hit 15 sixes between square leg and long on!! It's a phenomenal achievement...

a great hit, what more can one say. Bangladesh batted quite well too - at least their middle order batter whose name I could not tell you. He looked very good against some quality bowling from Lee and Johson. Bangladesh bowling looked a bit tardy but their captain did all he could to slow Watson, bringing his spinners on after the first over. Ricky's batted well in this series - seems at ease. I think it's a great move relieving him of the captaincy.

Not quality opposition but Bangladesh has talent. Their opening batsman Tamim Iqbal was last week voted as one of the Four Cricketers of the Year by Wisden 2011. And their Shakib Al Hasan is currently ranked the Best ODI All-rounder. Watson comes next followed by Afridi, Yuvraj and Kallis.