IPL 2018: ICC exemplifies Shane Watson’s century

Shane Watson had a torrid time for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in 2017. After being released by RCB, he moved to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and turned out to be a grand success for them. Chennai won their third Indian Premier League (IPL) on the back of a superlative knock of 117 runs of 57 balls by Watson. The 36-year old cricketer smashed 11 boundaries and eight sixes during the knock.

The start of the innings wasn’t an auspicious one for CSK by any stretch of the imagination. He commenced proceedings by playing out a maiden over from Bhuvneshwar Kumar who was right on the money in his opening over. Thereafter, he took four more balls and eventually got off the mark in the eleventh delivery. He spanked Sandeep Sharma down the ground for a boundary to open his account.

Watson’s awe-inspiring knock

The retired cricketer didn’t look back and took the bowlers by the scruff of their necks. Watson reached his half-century in 33 balls and never allowed the required rate to climb. The swashbuckling batsman eventually notched his century in 51 balls. He laid into Sandeep Sharma in the 13th over and smacked him for 27 runs and made CSK the firm favourites to win the match, which they eventually did.

Prior to that, Yusuf Pathan, Kane Williamson and Carlos Braithwaite’s short, yet useful knocks lifted SRH to a competitive score of 178 runs for the loss of six wickets. The Sunrisers began well with the ball, but couldn’t stop CSK from tracing the target down.

Meanwhile, the International Cricket Council (ICC) is awestruck by the exhibition of stroke-play by the 36-year old all-rounder. They put forth the manner in which Watto became only the second player in the tournament’s history to amass a ton in an IPL Final. Here is what they wrote

“How to score a century the @ShaneRWatson33 way: 1) Don’t score off your first 10 balls 2) Reach off the next 41 balls! What an innings! Just the second player ever to score a ton in an IPL final #IPL2018Final #CSKvSRH”

Here is ICC’s post

How to score a century the @ShaneRWatson33 way:

1) Don't score off your first 10 balls 🚫
2) Reach 💯 off the next 41 balls!

What an innings! Just the second player ever to score a ton in an IPL final 👏#IPL2018Final #CSKvSRH pic.twitter.com/ihXkbHqwwm

— ICC (@ICC) May 27, 2018

[interaction id=”5b0a739ea222d48bfec6b12b”]

Stay updated on every ‘cricket news‘ and developments with CricTracker.com.