Aussie Shane Watson scored the second century of IPL 2018 during the CSK-RR tie in Pune on Friday. It was overall Watson's third century in the IPL.
Following Chris Gayle's ton for Punjab on Thursday - first this season - Watson batted like a man possessed against his former team after early reprieves on Friday. He reached his century off 51 balls, hitting nine fours and six sixes in the process.
The 36-year-old eventually fell for 106 off 57 balls as fellow Aussie Ben Laughlin had him caught behind in the last over of the innings. Thanks to Watson's exploits, CSK reached a mammoth 204/5.
"Catches win matches" is a famous expression in the game of cricket. Rajasthan's Rahul Tripathi seemed to forget that when he dropped Watson twice.
Stuart Binny, playing his first game this season, bowled the first over of the match and his first delivery, shockingly, was a no-ball. Watson was quick to punish him off the free-hit delivery with a boundary. Then the Aussie added insult to injury by picking up another boundary off the next ball, this time through the covers.
Binny, to his credit, didn't lose his heart and continued pitching the ball outside the off-stump near the good-length spot. His effort bore fruition off the fifth ball as Watson found a thick edge. Sadly for Binny, Tripathi dropped what, by all means, was a regulation catch in the slips.
In the next over, another catch came Tripathi's way, again from Watson's bat. At point, he made a much better effort this time but again couldn't finish the job
Thereafter Watson ran amok and reached a breathtaking century.
Earlier in the match, RR won the toss and decided to have a field at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
Rajasthan made two changes to their team: South African Heinrich Klaasen and Binny came in; D'Arcy Short and Dhawal Kulkarni made way for them. For CSK, Suresh Raina and Karn Sharma came in. Raina returned from injury, while spinner Karn got his first game this season.
