By Julian Linden
PORT OF SPAIN, April 15 (Reuters) – Shane Watson again
showed why he is Australia’s man for all occasions when he
ground his way to a vital half-century on the first day of the
second test against West Indies on Sunday.
The all-rounder, now padding up at three after stints at six
and opener, batted for almost two and a half hours for just 56
runs at Queen’s Park Road in Trinidad.
On a pitch that played slow and turned from the outset, runs
were hard to come by. The Australians, who normally rattle along
at a much faster tempo, could only manage 208-5 for the day and
Watson was the only batsmen to reach 50.
“It was hard to get the pace of the ball because it was very
slow,” he told reporters.
“The ball was very soft from the time I came and in was only
getting softer through the innings. It made it very hard to
score and rotate through the strike with the fields that they
set.”
Watson has often been criticized for doing the hard work but
failing to go on and make bigger scores but this was not one of
those times.
He has reached 50 in tests on 20 occasions for Australia but
only made two hundreds. The 30-year-old said under the
circumstances, he was not disappointed by his latest effort,
because all the Australians had no choice other than to bat
cautiously.
“It’s not like we were on the defensive and defend
everything,” he said.
“We were looking to score but the way the wicket was and
with the way the ball was it was hard to pierce the field. So it
made it quite difficult at times to score.”
Despite Australia’s relative low return from the opening
day, Watson was confident the tourists were still in a strong
position after winning the toss.
“(The pitch) is only going to get worse so it was a pretty
important toss to win. That meant we weren’t going to be batting
on it last,” he said.
“With our two spinners as well, it meant we’ve got the
balance right the way the coin fell. If we’re able to get around
300 it’s going to put us in a pretty good position to make the
most of the conditions.”
(Editing by Patrick Johnston)
