Shane Watson credits MS Dhoni, Stephen Fleming after playing match-winning innings

Shane Watson couldn’t thank Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Stephen Fleming enough after ending his prolonged slump in form, saying he would have been “dropped a long time ago” in his previous franchise.

He had gone without a fifty in his first 10 innings of theongoing Indian Premier League before striking 96 off 53 balls on Tuesday nightto guide Chennai Super Kings to a win over Sunrisers Hyderabad.

   

“I can’t thank Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni enough for theirbelief in me. Just about every other team I’ve been in… for me to miss out onnot scoring runs for long as I had throughout the tournament, if I had been ina previous team I would have been dropped a long time ago,” Watson said.

Thanks to Watson’s knock, CSK chased down a target of 176 withsix wickets to spare.

“… So, for Stephen Fleming and MS Dhoni in particular tokeep the faith in me and knowing that I had a really good innings in me it wasgreat,” the 37-year old Watson told reporters.

“For me personally, knowing that I had come off from the PSLand coming into this I was flying high and then things didn’t go my way. I losta bit of rhythm in my batting.

“So, for them to keep faith in me I really appreciate it. Inthe end, you need a bit of luck going your way as well. Bhuvi worked me over inthe first couple of overs in particular and you need those little bits ofluck,” he added.

The strongly built batsman who hammered leg-spinner RashidKhan for quite a few runs, said the Afghan is one of the best in this format.

The Australian was effusive in his praise of compatriot andSRH opener David Warner, who has been in tremendous form this IPL.

 “I really don’t sortof remember for the last four-five years a tournament where Warner hasn’tscored a hell lot of runs. He’s a world-class player.

“It’s very sad the events that happened which made him miss12 months of international cricket but Australia are going to be very lucky tohave him coming back into the team because he’s a match-winner and aworld-class batsman,” Watson added.

SRH all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan praised Watson’s battingwhich took the game away from his team.

“Well the first plan was to get him out because we know howdangerous he is. Once he takes his time in the crease for five-six overs, itgets very difficult to get him out.

“And the power that he’s got, he can easily clearboundaries. Even his miss-hits go for six. We knew the danger he can produceagainst us. So the plan was to get him out but we couldn’t do that. And once hewas set, he just took the bowlers on.”

The Bangladesh cricketer said Watson struggled in the initial overs but the team knew once he settled he could make up for that with his big hits. “I think he was struggling a bit in the first four-five overs when the ball was moving a bit but we always knew that unless he gets out it will get very difficult because once he gets settled, he can make up for those balls (he takes to settle down) easily by hitting four-five sixes.”

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