Pakistan gun fast bowler Wahab Riaz bowled one of the fiercest spells in the history of the game when he breathed down the neck of Australia all-rounder Shane Watson in the 2015 World Cup quarterfinal match. In fact, it is known that Riaz was fired up to trouble Watson after he was sledged by the all-rounder. During Pakistan batting innings, Riaz kept missing the ball against Mitchell Starc.
Mitchell Starc had a few words to say to the batsman and Watson also sledged Riaz and said to him, “Do you have a hole in your bat? This fired up Wahab Riaz and he was all over Shane Watson when he came out to bat after the dismissal of Australian skipper Michael Clarke. Riaz bowled with his tail up as he bowled around the 150 km/h mark and bowled a lot of bouncers at the right-hander.
The left-arm was not only quick but he was also accurate and gave a hard time to the batsman. After almost every ball, Riaz would go near Watson and clap. In fact, Watson was dropped by Rahat Ali at deep fine leg when Riaz was able to produce a top edge from the batsman.
On Wahab Riaz's birthday, relive his ? spell to Shane Watson from the 2015 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup ? pic.twitter.com/NMnlQPtUAp
— ICC (@ICC) June 28, 2020
“One of the very special moments I had in my career,” Watson recalled during a Q&A session on Instagram, “even though at the time it wasn’t as enjoyable, but I look back at the quarterfinal against Pakistan with Wahab Riaz going absolutely crazy, bouncing the living daylights out of me, he bowled super accurate and he kept bouncing me.
“It was very silly and naive of me [that] I didn’t realize that Wahab Riaz could bowl that fast. I said something to him – because he kept playing and missing Mitchell Starc – so I ran past him and said, ‘Have you got a hole in your bat? Because you just keep missing the ball.’ And again, I didn’t realize he could bowl that fast so once I got out there, I got absolutely peppered.
However, Shane Watson went on to negate the ferocious spell as he scored an unbeaten knock of 64 runs off 66 balls. On the other hand, Wahab Riaz finished with two wickets for 54 runs. Australia went on to win the match by six wickets and then faced India in the semi-final of the 2015 World Cup.
Here is Shane Watson’s video: