Master of the run-chase
A spate of records fell by the wayside as Shane Watson unleashed his fury on the hapless bowlers. A look at some of the major landmarks from Watson's 96-ball unbeaten 185
S Rajesh
11-Apr-2011

All 15 of Shane Watson's sixes, as well as nine of his 15 fours, were scored on the leg side • ESPNcricinfo Ltd
- Fifteen sixes in an innings is easily a new ODI record; the previous best was Xavier Marshall's 12 against Canada during an unbeaten knock of 157. Marshall needed 118 balls for his 12 sixes; Watson's 15 came off only 96, which means he averaged nearly one six per over.
In fact, of the top 21 ODI scores by Australian batsmen, only three have come when batting second, and all of them belong to Watson - he also scored an unbeaten 161 out of a team total of 297 against England less than three months ago, and 136 not out against the same opposition in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy in 2009. The highest in a run-chase by an Australian other than Shane Watson is 133 not out by Mark Waugh.
Not surprisingly, Watson averages 32.81 in the first innings in ODIs, and 64.30 in the second. Five of his six hundreds have come in run-chases.
Bowler | Runs | Balls | Strike rate | 4s/ 6s |
Abdul Razzak | 51 | 28 | 182.14 | 4/ 5 |
Suhrawadi Shuvo | 39 | 11 | 354.54 | 1/ 5 |
Rubel Hossain | 37 | 24 | 154.16 | 5/ 1 |
Shakib Al Hasan | 26 | 20 | 130.00 | 0/ 3 |
Shafiul Islam | 25 | 11 | 227.27 | 5/ 0 |
Mahmudullah | 7 | 2 | 350.00 | 0/ 1 |
The table clearly shows that Watson was brutal against left-arm spin, but there was perhaps one trick that Shakib could have tried, if only out of sheer desperation. Watson was continuously slog-sweeping and pulling the spinners to leg, but the left-armers continued to bowl from round the wicket, instead of switching to over the wicket and forcing Watson to hit against the angle of the delivery. From the four deliveries that the left-arm spinners bowled over the stumps - all by Shakib, in the 17th over of the innings - Watson scored only a single; off the 55 deliveries bowled from round the stumps, he scored a staggering 115 runs, including 13 sixes.
Delivery angle | Runs | Balls | Run rate | 4s/ 6s |
Over the wicket | 1 | 4 | 1.50 | 0/ 0 |
Round the wicket | 115 | 55 | 12.54 | 5/ 13 |
S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo