Shane Watson carries bat, Rajasthan Royals into play-offs

Shane Watson’s 59-ball 104* was his second century in the IPL. (Source: Express Photo by Kevin D’Souza)

Shane Watson’s redemption song sets up a huge total. The impressive Morris derails the chase to shove champions KKR to the brink of the tournament.

Redemption song

Shane Watson has had a pretty ordinary IPL before Saturday night. He didn’t play the first five games due to an injury and when he returned, he came as a captain and oversaw Rajasthan’s alarming slide towards mediocrity. Finally, Rajasthan did the right thing and relived him of captaincy duties and he was left to focus on his core cricketing skills. Saturday night was his second game as just a player and he dragged Rajasthan to a match winning total of 199.

When he decides everything has to go, Watson borrows from baseball technique. The back foot goes back first and he launches himself forward from that position as a baseball batter does. Using such a technique, he launched the Morne Morkel delivery way over the midwicket boundary in the 19th over to reach 96 before he sliced Umesh Yadav to the point boundary to bring up the landmark. But all that manic hitting came right in the end; this knock was built on judicious shot selection and composure.

At times, in the past, he has been guilty of swiping across the line or trying something extra, but you couldn’t say that about this innings. Against the new ball, he almost dealt in the ‘V’, driving the Kolkata bowlers to disarray on a track where the ball came crisply on to the bat. Time and again, he threaded the off-side field and as ever, dispatched anything on the legs. The crowd saw a microcosm of his knock in the very first over off Azhar Mahmood, who incidentally was a strange choice considering Kolkata chose to drop Sunil Narine to give the Pakistani his first game of the season. Watson collected two fours — a cover drive and a flick and was up and running.

Watson was involved in a run-out that threatened to derail the innings. Ajinkya Rahane, who hit a breezy 22-ball 37, drove a ball to sweeper cover and was half-way down the track for the second run when he realised Watson hadn’t budged. And he couldn’t get back in time to beat the throw. Rajasthan were 80 and it was just the ninth over then. Soon, Steve Smith too fell, flicking a hip-high full toss to short fine-leg and Rajasthan began to lose momentum.
It was at this juncture that Watson decided to flex his muscles and revert to his baseball technique. And it was here that Kolkata’s selection of Mahmood again caught them on the wrong foot. Eighteen runs came in the 17th over as Watson drilled to point and extra cover boundaries and also threw in a good old heave to smash a slower one over long-on. Soon, he reached his ton, turned towards the dug-out and celebrated with a raised bat.

It was a night of redemption.

Chase derailed

Chris Morris has surprised a few batsmen this season with his skiddy bounce. The ball rushes that much quicker than what the batsmen anticipate. It was Gautam Gambhir’s turn to find that out on Saturday. A bouncer skidded across him and Gambhir was in no shape for the pull and could only top-edge it to midwicket. There came a time in the chase when Yusuf Pathan (34-ball 44) and Andre Russell (20-ball 37) threatened to pull off a heist with a feisty 55-run partnership from just 31 balls that took Kolkata from 77 to 132 in the 14th over. Russell used the long-handle and Pathan heaved away to crank up some tension in Rajasthan’s dug out. It was Morris who changed the game again with a double strike in the 14th over that yielded just two runs. He induced Russell to hole out to long-off and produced a rapidly skidding delivery to force Suryakumar Yadav to edge behind. Watson took out Pathan in the next over, and though Umesh Yadav tried his best, knocking 20 runs off Faulkner in the 19th over, the lower order was left with too much to do.

Brief scores: Rajasthan Royals 199/6 in 20 overs (Shane Watson 104 not out off 59 balls, Ajinkya Rahane 37 off 22, Andre Russell 3/32, Umesh Yadav 1/36) bt Kolkata Knight Riders 190/9 in 20 overs (Yusuf Pathan 44 off 35, Andre Russell 37 off 20, Chris Morris 4/23, Dhawal Kulkarni 2/36, Shane Watson 2/38). Rajasthan won the toss, chose to bat.

Source:: Indian Express