Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Shane Watson Goes Berserk

While the cricketing abomination namely the IPL is churning along in the background, an assassination took place in Mirpur yesterday night. The beefy Shane Watson, one of the rare good players left in Australia, gave the hapless Bangladesh a bashing they will never forget.

The Fun Part
If ever there was a one man assault, this was it. Set a barely defendable 230 to win, Watson crashed all but 80% of that on his way to 184 off 96 balls, including the world record for most number of boundaries in an innings, and most number of sixes (15 of them!). It was all over in 26 overs, and the most humorous thing is comparing this to the poor Bangladeshi's, who had only managed 83 in their first 26 overs. Compare this also to Watson's opening counterpart Imrul Kayes, who managed 5 runs from 41 balls, perhaps in an attempt to outdo Gavaskar as the snail innings of all time. Ouch.

Kayes vs Watson. What was in the lunch menu? © Cricinfo.com

The Scary Part
Now Watson was on 184* in the 26th over... given a bigger target that double century would have come with more than 20 overs to spare. Forget Sachin, if this went on the way it was, 250 and beyond was not a write off. Get this quote from the big man himself: "The reason I kept going after [reaching] 100 is because I was tired, and I didn't really want to run too much; I was either going to try to hit as many sixes as I could or get out because I was pretty tired". Thats right, he was tired. Have mercy on the poor souls who have to endure an awake Shane Watson in this mood.

Diverging rivers. © Cricinfo.com

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