Australian cricketer Matthew Wade who received lots of critisism over his ‘obstructing the field’ action in the match against England opens up on the incident.
Matthew Wade On Obstructing the Field Incident
During the England tour of Australia, both teams are scheduled to play 3 T20Is as a preparation camp for T20 World Cup 2022. Matthew Wade executed the incident when Mark Wood tried to take his catch during the 1st T20I between Australia and England at Perth Stadium, Perth.
The incident took place in the third ball of the 17th over when Wade attempted the pull shot on Wood’s short delivery but failed to time it well. Wade was out of the crease after hitting the ball as Wood charged forward to take the catch. Wade turned to get inside the crease and he put his hand out to block Wood.
However, it was not quite clear whether Wade knew where the ball was but it was a bit evident that Wade was blocking the English pacer.
Though England captain Jos Buttler reveals the reason why he didn’t appeal for Matthew Wade’s action, netizens criticized Wade for his behavior. Wade, who turned a blind eye towards the incident, has now admitted that what he did ‘looked horrible’.
Jos Buttler on the Matthew Wade/Mark Wood incident #AUSvENG pic.twitter.com/VJ1TKPwlyw
— Chloe-Amanda Bailey (@ChloeAmandaB) October 9, 2022
“That looked horrible when I saw it after the game,” Wade told cricket.com.au’s The Unplayable Podcast. “It was one of those things that just happened so fast.
“I think Kane Richardson said to me when I got off the ground, ‘You pushed him, basically’. I was like, ‘No, I didn’t’. And then I saw the replay and I was like, ‘Well, yeah, I did’,” he explained.
Wade further said that for the most part of that incident, he wasn’t aware of where the ball was, and even if it had hit his bat.
“(Wood bowling at) 150 (kph), decent crowd – at first I didn’t know if I hit it. It hit me in the head hard, it rung my bell a little bit, (I) went to run down the wicket, Davey (Warner) sent me back, I turned and saw point running in.
“Then I wasn’t sure if I was going to get run out or where the actual ball was. It all just happened literally like that. And then next minute, I was on the ground, looked up and the ball was like coming down. So yeah, it didn’t look great,” Wade made an honest admission.
The veteran wicket-keeper batter maintains that he hadn’t consciously attempted to prevent Wood from catching the ball. Wade even said that he would’ve walked off the field had England appealed for his dismissal.
“If I had a conscious thought of doing it, then I’d be regrettable for doing it,” he continued.
“But at the time, there’s just so much happening and getting hit in the head with the bloke bowing 150ks at you – things go in fast forward.
“Now looking back on it, I can see like all these things happened. It was chaos out there. If they had appealed and I saw it on the replay, so be it, I would have walked off the ground, there’s not much I could do about it,” he concluded.
England won the three-match T20I series by winning the first two matches where the last match was called off due to rain. Australia who currently participated in T20 World Cup 2022 will play their first match of the tournament against New Zealand on October 22 in Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney.
