Watch: Shane Watson Wins Hearts By Walking Off Even Before Umpire Gives His Decision

Shane Watson was going through a terrible run in the ongoing IPL season before he met Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday. The critics were sharpening their knives and raising questions about Watson’s place in Chennai Super Kings’ XI and the opener was doing little to prove them wrong. In the first ten games of the season, he had managed just 147 runs at a strike rate of 112.21 before roaring back to form on Tuesday.

The veteran allrounder hammered 96 from 53 balls to guide Chennai Super Kings to a six-wicket win over Warner’s Sunrisers Hyderabad side. Such was the impact of Watson’s innings that the 176-run target on a tough Chepauk track looked like a cakewalk for the Super Kings.  Watson did not start the innings on a promising manner, playing out a maiden in the first over. However, he soon found his rhythm and did not look back after that.

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The metal belongs there close to #Watto! #WhistlePodu #Yellove ?? pic.twitter.com/A9VOmEC5pi

— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) April 23, 2019

Watson also rode his luck. He was on 33 off 26 balls when wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow dropped him off Sandeep Sharma. And the Australian made Sunrisers pay a big price for that drop. After the reprieve, he smashed 63 runs off 27 balls at a strike-rate of 233. Watson’s superb knock, however, ended in a disappointing manner as he fell short of a well-deserved century by just four runs.

But even after his dismissal he won hearts all over with his sportsmanship.

Despite batting on 96, Watson walked off the field immediately after edging the ball to the wicketkeeper in the 18th over even though the umpire was yet to adjudge him out. On the first ball of the 18th over, he tried to pull a short delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. However, he could not connect well and the resulting top-edge went through to Bairstow who took a stunning one-handed catch, diving to his left.

However, the main umpire was perhaps blinded and could not come to a conclusion even though the bowler appealed vehemently. But Watson did not wait for the decision and walked off straightaway.

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Here is a clip of that incident involving Shane Watson:

https://twitter.com/PRINCE3758458/status/1120892928694550529

Meanwhile, the Super Kings went on to win the game by six wickets to move back to the top of the points table.