'A bit of blood wasn't going to stop me' - Shane Watson recalls his epic knock in the IPL 2019 final

Shane Watson is one of the best all-rounders to have played the game. His ability score big runs and take crucial wickets made him a price asset for any team to have in the T20 format. When the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bought him ahead of the IPL 2018, Watson had already retired from international cricket. He wasn’t playing regular cricket but from time to time, he would appear in some T20 leagues.

But, the purchase proved to be worthy enough for CSK. In 2018, he scored 555 runs in the tournament at a strike rate in excess of 150. This included a century in the final of the tournament as well. Watson guided CSK to a title after seven years as his innings in the final blew away the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

However, he would have replicated his effort once again in the IPL final of 2019. Against Mumbai Indians, Shane Watson was in full flow as CSK were looking quite strong to get the chase done. However, when Chennai needed just three runs to win from three balls, he got run out after scoring 80 runs off just 59 deliveries. Chennai, unfortunately, went on to lose the match by just one run.

Shane Watson knew about the blood from his wife

During Watson’s innings, many fans had noticed that the all-rounder was battling an injury. Red blood stains were seen on his knees during the innings. Recently, in an interview, he opened up about the innings and revealed some details. Shane Watson said that he had no idea about the injury while he was playing. He had injured his knee earlier in the innings after diving to complete a run.

“I had absolutely no idea 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 said while speaking to the CSK live on Instagram.

Moreover, the 38-year-old also went on to say that he got to know about the blood on his pants only after his wife told the next morning. Though Shane Watson feels it wouldn’t have mattered much even if he would’ve known earlier about it.

“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.

“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 has been mind-blowing,” he further added.