Shane Watson's 3rd IPL hundred helps CSK to win over Rajasthan Royals in Pune.
CSK and RR played an IPL match after 2 years. Last year Dhoni and Rahane were in the same team but now they were opposing each other.
Watson blistering hundred consist of 6 huge sixes and 9 boundaries. He smashed the Rajasthan bowlers all over the part of the stadium. While CSK scored a mammoth 204 for five, Watson contributed more than half of it with a well-compiled 106 off 57 balls.
In the process of hitting his third ton in the IPL, the former Australia allrounder smashed nine boundaries and six sixes and allowed his franchise to leapfrog Kolkata Knight Riders and rise to the top of the points-table.
In the end, it seemed that Rajasthan could never recover from Watson’s lusty blows as they lost by 64 runs. It was their second consecutive loss, while CSK, coming on the back of a defeat to Kings XI Punjab, started their journey at their adopted ‘home’ on a welcome high.
Rajasthan though, had created chances to dismiss Watson right at the start. But on both occasions, Rahul Tripathi couldn’t latch on to the opportunities. While he first dropped a sitter at first slip with Watson batting on nine, the second chance was a difficult one at point. The Australian made them pay dearly as he was relentless against both pacers and spinners.
On a pitch where the ball was coming on to the bat nicely, Watson fluently cut and drove. The way he kept depositing left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat and offspinner K Gowtham to the stands showed the immense control he had over the proceedings. In fact, he was the only batsman who hit sixes in CSK’s innings.
The only bowler to survive Watson’s brute force was Shreyas Gopal as he finished with figures of 4-0-20-3. That the other Rajasthan bowlers bowled wither short, overpitched or wavered in their line didn’t help matters.
Such was CSK’s dominance in the Powerplay overs that Rajasthan captain Ajinkya Rahane had to use five different bowlers in the first five overs to affect a breakthrough. But that hardly put the brakes on the CSK onslaught.
Watson found a strong ally in Suresh Raina (46, 29b, 9x4). Raina, who was making a comeback after missing CSK’s last game with a calf-muscle injury, showed no signs of illness as he smashed Stokes for four consecutive boundaries. Together they stitched a partnership of 81 off 44 balls for the second wicket. With CSK making a flying start, it didn’t matter that they took only 43 runs off the last five overs.
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