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Who would have predicted that: Shane Watson hits Australia's highest individual score in ODIs with record 15 sixes

Australia's Shane Watson

©Reuters

In our feature series - Who would have predicted that? – we are looking back at matches where there were big upsets or extraordinary individual performances that turned matches on their head.

With an unbeaten knock of 185 against Bangladesh, Shane Watson scored 79.74 % of Australia's runs, taking the team to the target with almost half the overs to spare.

Match Summary

Bangladesh 229/7 (50 overs) - Mushfiqur Rahim* 81 (80), Shahriar Nafees 56 (73); Mitchell Johnson 3/54 (10), Steven Smith 2/34 (7)

Australia 232/1 (26 overs) - Shane Watson* 185 (96), Ricky Ponting* 37 (42); Shakib Al Hasan 1/35 (7), Abdur Razzak 0/58 (7)

Result - Australia won by 9 wickets

In the second ODI on the Australia tour of Bangladesh in 2011, the home side batted first and scored 229 runs for the loss of 7 wickets from their quota of 50 overs. Only one of their top 5 batsmen could reach double figures.

Shahriar Nafees was the one to do so and converted it into a half-century with 6 boundaries. However, the most crucial runs came from the lower middle order.

Mushfiqur Rahim, batting at No. 6, scored a run a ball 81 with 9 fours and 1 six. Mahmudullah also chipped in with 38 to take the team to a respectable total.

Fall of wickets: 1-9 (Tamim Iqbal, 1.4 ov), 2-27 (Imrul Kayes, 10.6 ov), 3-28 (Raqibul Hasan, 11.4 ov), 4-65 (Shakib Al Hasan, 20.5 ov), 5-88 (Shahriar Nafees, 26.6 ov), 6-167 (Mahmudullah, 43.2 ov), 7-195 (Sohrawordi Shuvo, 47.2 ov)

Australian opener Shane Watson did not take any time to warm up and was in a punishing mood from ball one. He carted the Bangladesh bowling line-up to all parts of the park at the Shere Bangla Stadium in Dhaka, plundering 185 runs off just 96 deliveries with 15 fours and a world record 15 sixes, which was later bettered by Rohit Sharma.

Watson scored at a strike rate of 192.71 and barely gave his fellow batsmen a chance to contribute. The most telling stat was that in the 170-run 2nd wicket partnership between him and Ricky Ponting, the latter could manage just 37.

Had Bangladesh scored a few more runs, Watson had a clear shot at breaking Sachin Tendulkar's record of 200* as Australia chased down the total within just 26 overs.

Fall of wickets: 1-62 (Brad Haddin, 8.3 ov)

Teams

Bangladesh - Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Shahriar Nafees, Raqibul Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Shakib Al Hasan (c), Mahmudullah, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam, Suhrawadi Shuvo, Rubel Hossain

Australia - Shane Watson, Brad Haddin (wk), Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke (c), Callum Ferguson, Michael Hussey, Steven Smith, Mitchell Johnson, John Hastings, Brett Lee, Xavier Doherty