http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 World T20: Bailey identifies Watson as leading man for Australia – Cricket News Update
Lauding http://www.senore.com/Cricket/George-Bailey-c1480 identified the all-rounder as one of the team’s leading players, praising Watson as “almost the complete cricketer”.
“I think he's really set himself to be the man of the tournament, to be the person who leads Australia as far as he can in this tournament,” Bailey said. “When you see how he plays this form of the game, he's almost the complete cricketer.”
Watson has been Australia’s stand-out performer in the ongoing tournament, putting forth impressive performances with both bat and ball as Australia power their way through the World T20, as yet unbeaten.
The team came into the tournament on the back of a 1-2 T20I defeat at the hands of Pakistan in the UAE, which caused them to slip lower than Ireland on the ICC’s team rankings. However, the team has since been having a successful run in the competition,
and have yet to register a single loss.
Australia powered their way through the group stage of the tournament, defeating http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750. The two consecutive wins powered them easily into the Super Eights stage, where they have been grouped
with India, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755, and South Africa.
However, a massive 9-wicket win in their first match against India established Australia as a near-invincible side in the tournament, and they owe their success largely to the prowess of Watson. The 31-year-old is currently the team’s top-run-getter in the
tournament, with 164 runs at a strike-rate of 170.83 to his credit.
He has also been similarly impressive with the ball, having claimed a total of eight wickets, with an economy-rate of 7.41. In addition, the right-hander has established a comfortable partnership with fellow opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DA-Warner-c1301, and the two have rarely given
the remainder of the batting order the need to step up to the crease.
Having won the Player of the Match award in all of the three matches the team has played in the tournament so far, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 will be banking on him to come good during their upcoming
clash with http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757, due to take place at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on September 30.
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