Shane Watson is one of the best all rounders of Australian cricket in recent years and he has done very well with both bat and ball for Australia for a number of years in all 3 formats of the game. Shane Watson is also one of the most destructive batters in world cricket and he is a favorite of mine just not against India. We will talk about his records below but it’s sad to see that Shane Watson will no longer play International cricket for Australia.
Shane Watson played international cricket from 2002-2015 and he has served Australian cricket very well. He has played 59 Test Matches for Australia and in those matches he has scored 3731 Test runs at an average of 35.20 with 4 test hundreds to his name. While bowling in test cricket he has taken 75 wickets at an average of 33.68. In ODIs he has played 190 ODI Matches for Australia and he has made 5757 runs at a good average of 40.54 with 9 ODI hundreds and while bowling in ODI cricket he has taken 168 Wickets at an average of 31.80. He has also played 59 T20I Matches for Australia. Let’s look at his Top 5 Best Performances.
176 vs England (2013)
The best innings that Shane Watson played in test cricket was this blistering 176 run knock that he played vs England in 2013. Australia were batting first in this test match and Shane Watson came into bat at number 3 and he scored 176 runs in just 247 balls and he hit 25 fours and 1 huge six and he made them at a strike rate of 71+. This was an extraordinary innings considering they were playing at The Oval where it is not so easy to bat and bat this quickly. The match ended in a draw but this innings will be very special to him.
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120* vs Pakistan (2009)
The second performance that we will talk about is the performance of his vs Pakistan in 2009 where he played a match winning test innings under very difficult circumstances and this innings showed a lot of character and he led his team to a good win vs Pakistan. Shane Watson made 120* in the 3rd innings of the match and he made them in 220 balls which means he took his time to bat and help Australia out of a tricky situation. He hit 10 fours and 1 six in this innings and his Performances in both innings of this test match was the difference between the 2 teams.
5/40 vs Pakistan (2010)
This was one of the best bowling Performances by Shane Watson in test cricket and it came at Lord’s vs Pakistan in 2010. Australia batted first and made 253 runs and while bowling in reply it was Shane Watson who only in 7.5 overs took 5 wickets in the Innings while giving away 40 runs. This burst of excellent bowling allowed Australia to take control of the test match and they won by 150 runs. Shane Watson established himself as a proper all rounder after this performance.
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185* vs Bangladesh (2011)
This was a one man show in this ODI and this was undoubtedly the best batting Performance in the career of Shane Watson be it all 3 formats. Bangladesh batted first in this ODI match and could only make 229 in their 50 overs. In reply Shane Watson made 185* out of the 230 runs needed which is almost above 74% of the runs. He smashed the Bangladesh bowlers to all parts hitting 15 fours and 15 towering sixes which means a total of 150 runs in boundaries alone out of 185*. If Bangladesh had made more 40 runs then Shane Watson would have got his 200* in that innings.
4/43 vs West Indies (2006)
The last performance that we will talk about in this list is the bowling effort that Shane Watson put up against West Indies in 2006 when he took 4/43 in 8 overs and Australia won by 78 runs in the match. Shane Watson bowled at good lime and lengths and he got the important wickets and led Australia to another win vs West Indies. Shane Watson was an incredible player and we all miss him.
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