36-year-old Shane Watson defied his age to overcome a sluggish start and a hamstring problem as he went on to score match-winning unbeaten 117 from just 57 balls in the Indian Premier League 2018 final, which Chennai Super Kings (CSK) won against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
This was Watson’s second century in the recently concluded IPL season 2018.
Impressed with Watson’s classy innings, Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis feels the retired Watson could still be a force to reckon with in international cricket, in case he wants to come out of retirement.
We did it!!! #ShaneWatson u absolute champ! _ What a fantastic innings! @ChennaiIPL are the champions __ Time for celebrations now! #WhistlePodu ___ pic.twitter.com/CZuZYkLxrm
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) May 27, 2018
Watson, who will be turning 37 next month, retired from international cricket in 2016.
“He’s still good enough to play for Australia, for sure,” Stoinis, who represented Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in IPL 2018, told RSN, as reported by cricket.com.au.
“…We sat down over there (in India) and he’s mentored me for a couple of years now. His hunger to keep getting better at the end of his career, it’s no coincidence why he’s so good. I don’t think the Australian public realised how good he was when he was playing for Australia,” he added.
Last night, Watson single-handedly turned the game in Chennai’s favour as he made a mockery of SRH’s strong bowling line-up.
Shane Watson Crying And Saying Sorry To Dhoni For Not Letting Him Finish Off In Style… #CSKvSRH #IPL2018Final pic.twitter.com/7m5RLYByzo
— ss_ssu ssh_i__ (@Shahrcasm) May 27, 2018
Watson, who came to open for CSK while chasing 179-run target set by SRH, remained not out.
In 15 IPL games played for CSK, the Aussie scored 555 runs at a strike rate of 154.59. He also picked 6 wickets in 28 overs he bowled.
The right-handed batsman represented Australia in 59 Tests, 190 ODIs and 58 T20Is. In his career span, Watson scored over 9,000 runs and picked up over 250 wickets across formats.
