Do Australians sledge each other at IPL 2015? - Shane Watson has the answer

Bengaluru, April 23: Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Shane Watson has revealed that there will be no sledging between the Australian players involved in different teams at the Indian Premier League 2015 (IPL 8).

IPL Special; Points Table; What is Super Over?

A host of Australian cricketers are plying their trade in the ongoing Twenty20 tournament in India. Watson, Steve Smith and James Faulkner have been an integral part of RR while Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh and captain George Bailey are with Kings XI Punjab (KXIP).

Mitchell Starc is in Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) squad. Chennai Super Kings have the retired Michael Hussey. Opener David Warner is the skipper of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Aaron Finch played for Mumbai Indians (MI) but was later ruled out due to injury sustained during a match.

In the recent game, RR came face to face with KXIP. The match went into Super Over and KXIP won with Marsh starring with the bat. That ended RR's 5-match winning run.

Johnson and Watson, team-mates in the 2015 World Cup winning squad, were up against each other in that 'Super' match. The left-arm paceman clean bowled Watson on the first ball of the Super Over.

Talking about that match, Watson has said that all Australians involved in IPL respect each other and there are no real words exchanged.

"There's no real words involved between the Australians when we run into one another on the field, it's more we know a lot of their guys who are playing are Aussie guys and are crucial wickets in the game, so there's a bit of celebration when we get one of them out," Watson wrote on Cricket Australia's (CA) website today.

"It's certainly not over the top - we have way too much respect for each other so no-one's ever going to step over the mark. And as an Australia team we've had a lot of great times together, especially over the last 18 months. It's also nice to be involved in matches against your mates, and to see someone like Shaun Marsh come out in that Super Over and hit them so sweetly from ball one was an unbelievable sign," he added.

On losing his stumps to Johnson and the Super Over match, he said, "It was a thrill to be part of the first Super Over match of this year's IPL this week, though not so great to end up on the wrong side of the sudden-death shoot-out that handed the Rajasthan Royals our first loss of the tournament. Ditto for losing my off-stump to Mitchell Johnson off the first ball of his Super Over."

So far, RR have won 5 games out of 6 and are on top of the table. Having missed the opening 4 matches, Watson is back playing for RR has has scored 73 and 46.

OneIndia News