Australia all-rounder and Chennai Super King (CSK) player Shane Watson is known to be a consummate professional. He was picked by the Chennai based IPL franchise in the auction before IPL 2018 and scored a century in IPL 11 final to help CSK to their third title.
The CSK team reached the final in IPL 12 as well and faced Mumbai Indians. The team was chasing 150 runs and Watson scored 80 runs in just 59 balls before getting run out. However, he had hurt his knee while diving at the start of the innings and continued to play despite blood seeping out of his trousers.
Watson, 37, was running between the wickets well and hitting sixes at will but was run out when he tried to steal an extra run in the final over in which Lasith Malinga successfully defended 9 runs for MI. Chennai failed to scrape past the finish line and ended up falling short by 1 run.
Shane Watson picks MS Dhoni and Rahul Dravid as the best captains he played under
In a chat with anchor Rupa Ramani on Instagram live, Watson revealed, "I had absolutely no idea that that had occurred. It wasn't until I was walking off after running myself out in the last over and stuffed it for CSK, the chance to win another final, I was walking off and I saw blood and a cut through the pads. I thought it must have happened when I had dived in to save myself from a run out in the last over.”
He then added that it was his wife who said that blood was visible on his pants throughout the innings. “It wasn't actually until the next day when my wife Lee actually mentioned that 'there was blood on your pants'. It was in the first few overs when I had to dive to save myself. I didn't know it was there at all but even if I did it absolutely would not have stopped me,” he added.
"I have played with a lot of different things before so a bit of blood was not going to stop me especially at such a big time for CSK. The love and support that I have got since joining CSK have been mind-blowing,” Watson claimed.
Watson felt fortunate to get a chance to play for the three-time IPL champions. He has already thanked captain MS Dhoni and head coach Stephen Fleming for keeping faith in him, despite failing for 10 innings in IPL 2019.
"I have been fortunate to play for two other great franchises but CSK, the love, and support that I have got since the day that I arrived... in the team, around the team but then also the supporters have just been... I'm just so fortunate. I'd give anything and would do anything to be able to help CSK," Watson told Rupa Ramani.
(CSK/India Today inputs)
