Cricket World ® Player Of The Week - Ryan Watson
Ryan Watson (centre-right) cools off during his epic innings of 123 not out against Canada.
©Mike Stanger / Cricket Scotland
Scotland middle-order batsman Ryan Watson has been named as the Cricket World ® Player of the week. The 30 year old was singled out by the Cricket World ® editorial team for his match-winning innings of 123 not out against Canada in the ICC Tri-Series.
His career best effort led Scotland to victory with 1 ball to spare, a remarkable comeback from a 190 run defeat to Kenya days earlier. Coming in to bat with the score on 48-1, chasing 292, he remained at the crease until the end, forging a crucial partnership with Navdeep Poonia of 100 to get the Scottish innings back on track.
His innings came off of 116 balls, and included 10 fours and two sixes. The knock was his highest one-day international score and his third one-day century in all.
Watson then went on to captain Scotland to a narrow loss against Kenya in their next match. With many players unavailable through illness, he couldn't quite guide them to a victory, as they lost by 6 runs. Scotland next take on Canada in Mombasa on Tuesday 23rd January.
The editorial staff also considered the efforts of several other players, including Saurav Ganguly, who hit 98 on his one-day comeback, Andrew Flintoff for his match-winning 72 against New Zealand and Mohammad Asif for a sterling bowling effort in the ongoing second test in Port Elizabeth, but it was decided that as Watson's innings was not only a personal best, but the catalyst for a remarkable victory, he was deserving of the award.
"For Rhino to come back from his horrific facial injury in Bangladesh in December and score two centuries for Scotland in the space of five matches since then is nothing short of amazing. He is, quite simply, Scotland's best batsman," commented Scotland coach Peter Drinnen.
The Cricket World ® Player Of The Week is decided by the Cricket World ® editorial team, which takes into consideration international matches played in the preceeding week. This week, our forum members also highlighted the performance of Shivnarine Chanderpaul for his 149 not out against India as a possible contender for the award.
To discuss the award and put forward contenders for next week's award in our forum, click
here.
