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Shane Watson tees off in the IPL final

Shane Watson is a regular on the T20 circuit, currently plying his trade in the Pakistan Super League. (AAP Image/Rob Blakers)
Expert
27th May, 2018
13

Shane Watson is 36, he hasn’t played an international of any description since March 2016, and is hobbling with a hamstring problem.

That hardly paints the picture of a batsman likely to dominate an IPL final at a packed Mumbai, especially as he started with ten dots from the first ten deliveries he faced.

But that was just the lull before the Watson storm.

From 0 from 10, to 50 from 33, to 100 from 51, and finally 117 not out from 57, Watson was simply superb, as his 11 boundaries and eight maximums will attest.

His hamstring was very grateful that 92 runs didn’t require him to move out of his crease.

This was vintage Shane Watson, and on the biggest T20 stage in world cricket.

He led the Chennai Super Kings (2-181) to a superb victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad (6-178) by eight wickets, with nine deliveries up their sleeve.

His second-wicket partnership with Suresh Raina (32) posted 117 from just 57 deliveries and had the yellow dressed Super Kings supporters constantly on their feet applauding.

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Not bad for a side tagged Dad’s Army pre-tournament.

That list is headed by 38-year-old Imran Tahir and 37-year-old Harbhajan Singh.

Skipper MS Dhoni and Watson are 36, Dwayne Bravo 34, Faf du Plessis and Murali Vijay are 33, with Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav both 32 and Suresh Raina 31.

Yet Dad’s Army won the coveted trophy for the third time in seven finals without Dhoni and Bravo having to bat.

That is a significant stat in a high-quality decider.

The Sunrisers deserved to reach the final after a major shakeup pre-tournament that saw David Warner dumped as captain (and from the tournament) after the ball-tampering affair in Cape Town, with Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson taking over the reins.

He led from the front with a tournament-high 735 runs at 50-plus, with the all-round brilliance of Rashid Khan another telling factor.

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Not surprisingly, Williamson top-scored for the Sunrisers with 47 from 36, supported by 35-year-old Yusuf Pathan’s 45 off 25.

The Sunrisers were quite happy with 178, not knowing Shane Watson was going to play one of the T20 innings of his life.

Dwayne Bravo summed it up best with a broad grin – “We always said experience will get the better of youth”.

Former Australian all-rounder Tom Moody, the Sunrisers’ head coach, added – “We saw something special tonight with Shane Watson’s innings”.

So IPL 2018 is done and dusted after 59 matches in just 50 days.

But it will always be remembered as one of Shane Watson’s finest hours.

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