It was a tale of starting with failure and ending with victory. In Australia’s opening encounter against West Indies at the Wanderers stadium, Watson made a first-ball duck with Kemar Roach clean bowling the batsman. The failure followed in the second match, this time India’s Asish Nehra sending him back at Centurion, the same venue the Australian chose to hit two consecutive centuries in his team’s memorable triumph.
“I think people have started to see the real Shane Watson in the last couple of matches. Getting his opportunity in the Ashes to open the batting, he played beautifully, and he is now showing with his bowling what a cricketer he can be. He bowled terrifically against England and then went out and scored 130-odd, but you can’t get much tougher than tonight’s situation,” an impressed Australian captain Ricky Ponting said on Monday.
Watson, who played a controlled innings to steer his team to victory in the final, said: “We needed discipline today, and we knew that if I was around till the 40th over, we had a chance. It was set up with Ponting’s help in the semis to get me through, and he missed out today, but it was time for another to step up.
“The wicket today was a little slower than the other night (semifinal against England on Friday) but Mills and Bond bowled beautifully straight up until me and White had a good partnership,” he said.
Watson credited a turnaround in his career for a stint with the Indian Premier League for Rajasthan Royals, which won the inaugural tournament. Under Shane Warne’s captaincy, Watson improved his game and was the player of the tournament for his 472 runs and 17 wickets.
“There is no doubt that’s what got me back on the field, got my confidence up as a player, but also it got me back in the Australian team a bit quicker than I thought I would be. That was a massive turning point in my career, to be able to play on such a big stage when I wasn’t playing for Australia. I learned a lot through the captaincy and coaching of Warne and now it has helped me in bigger games to control my emotions.”
He also wants to emulate what Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden did as openers for Australia.
“Seeing Hayden and Gilchrist bat the way they did, there’s obviously a big opportunity for me to try to fill the void there because we always got off to flyers. Adam and Matt always got big totals, especially in big events, Adam Gilchrist in the World Cup final and Matt Hayden throughout the whole World Cup.
“I love batting at the top of the order against the new ball, so I have just got to do as best I possibly can,” he added.
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