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Veteran Watson continues to shine

Allrounder top of the wicket-takers table in IPL to bowl Bangalore into final

He may have retired from the international arena, but Shane Watson continues to be a Twenty20 tour de force, bowling the Royal Challengers Bangalore into the final of the Indian Premier League.

The Australian veteran took 4-29 from his four overs in his side's qualifying final win against the Gujarat Lions, including the key scalps of Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo.

The 34-year-old has now taken 20 wickets for the tournament at 21.20 to claim the IPL's Purple Cap for the top bowler, and has given the Royal Challengers Bangalore good value after they picked up Watson for a cool AUD$1.98million in the IPL player auction.

Watson set Raina with a series of pressure-building dot-balls before a clever fielding change by skipper Virat Kohli and a perfectly delivered bumper had the Gujarat skipper caught at short fine leg in the third over.

Watson returned late in the innings to help stem the run rate and keep Gujarat contained and picked up three big wickets, helping hold the Lions to 158.

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"To be able to bowl the back-end of a game, bowl two overs in the back five, it's been a great challenge to me to see what skills I have got and be able to execute my skills under pressure against specific batsmen," Watson said.

"Sometimes it pays off, other days it doesn't exactly but I'm still learning every single game. 

"For Virat to give me that responsibility, I've really enjoyed the challenge, he's looked after me very well.

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"It's been a really nice season so far, I've had a lot of fun at RCB and things have worked out nicely with the ball the majority of the time."

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Watson's four-wicket haul now means Australians dominate all of the bowling statistics in this season's IPL.

Adam Zampa's tournament best figures of 6-19 have ensured he also has the lowest bowling average of 9.58, while Mitch Marsh is the most economic bowler, going at just five-an-over.

During the tournament Watson became just the third player to reach the mark of 5,000 runs and 100 wickets in T20 cricket, joning Kieron Pollard and Shoaib Malik. His continued dominance in the IPL follows from his impressive performance in the World T20, which was his intenational swansong.

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Watson has finished his international career as the world's best T20 allrounder in the International Cricket Council’s player rankings, ahead of the likes of Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan and Pakistan's enigmatic Shahid Afridi.

After solid performances in his preferred opening position for Australia’s first two World T20 matches, Watson was moved to the unfamiliar spot of six for their last two games but demonstrated his versatility, smashing a crucial 44 off 21 against Pakistan and then 18 off 16 against India.

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He was also vital with the ball, picking up five wickets for the tournament and was the pick of Australia’s bowlers in their loss to India, finishing with 2-23 off four miserly overs.

He was also the only Australian selected to the official World T20 Team of the Tournament.