He may have retired from the international arena, but Shane Watson continues to be a Twenty20 force, bowling Royal Challengers Bangalore into the final of the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.
The Australian all-rounder took 4-29 from his four overs in his side's qualifying final win over Gujarat Lions, including the key scalps of Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo.
The 34-year-old has now taken 20 wickets for the tournament to share top-billing amongst all IPL bowlers with teammate Yuzvendra Chahal, with the Australian's wickets coming at 21.20 a piece.
Watson set Raina up to have the Indian Test batsman caught at short fine leg from a short ball in the third over, the table-toppers crashing to 3-9 after losing Australian Aaron Finch for four and Brendon McCullum for one.
He then returned late in the innings to stem the run rate with his final three wickets and hold Gujarat to 158 from their 20 overs.
"To be able to bowl the back-end of a game in the back five, it's been a great challenge to me to see what skills I have got and be able to execute my skills under pressure against specific batsmen," Watson said.
"It's been a really nice season so far, I've had a lot of fun at RCB and things have worked out nicely with the ball the majority of the time."
South African AB de Villiers then steered Bangalore home with the bat, crunching an unbeaten 79 from 47 balls to secure a spot in the final.
Watson's four-wicket haul now means Australians dominate all of the bowling statistics in this season's IPL.
Adam Zampa's tournament best figures of 6-19 have ensured he also has the lowest bowling average of 9.58, while Mitch Marsh is the most economic bowler, going at just five-an-over.
Meanwhile Finch's Gujarat side will now face the winners of the game between Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday for the last spot in the final.
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