Australian wicketkeeper Matthew Wade has reportedly been reprimanded by the ICC following his confrontation with umpire Nitin Menon during Saturday’s T20 World Cup match against England in Bridgetown.
During the 18th over of Australia’s innings at Kensington Oval, Wade pulled away moments before a delivery from English leg-spinner Adil Rashid, blocking the ball with no intent to score.
However, Menon refused to signal dead ball, much to Wade’s frustration. The 36-year-old protested at the non-striker’s end the following delivery, also exchanging words with England captain Jos Buttler.
“He pulled away and then played it,” Buttler later explained to reporters.
“The umpire was like, ‘Well, you sort of played it.’ But he said he pulled away.
“To be honest, I was thinking about many other things at that point.”
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Article 20.4.2.5 of the Laws of Cricket states that the umpire can signal a dead ball if “the striker is not ready for the delivery of the ball and, if the ball is delivered, makes no attempt to play it”.
According to NewsCorp, Wade has been reprimanded by the ICC for protesting the decision.
“Wadey is a fiery guy,” Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa said after the match.
“He’s super competitive and something ticked him over a little bit today, and that’s what we love about Wadey.
“He backed away and he played that shot and I think he felt like that it was the same basically as letting it hit him on the leg on a dead ball.
“But it doesn’t take much to fire Wadey up.
“That’s the beautiful thing about Wadey, having him behind the stumps. He’s so competitive.
“You hear his voice and that makes a huge difference.
“If you’ve got a wicketkeeper who is quiet, whose body language is the opposite of someone like Wadey, you can feel that as well.”
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Australian opener Travis Head suggested that music playing over the venue’s loudspeaker prompted Wade to pull out of the delivery.
“All Wadey was doing was looking for clarification because he felt like he pulled out,” Head said.
“When a bloke has gone four and four off the first two balls, it’s very rare for him to block the next one, especially Wadey.
“I think he didn’t really have intention (to play a shot). It followed him, he blocked it.
“Wadey just asked the question. They obviously went the other way that it was deemed fair and we moved on.”
The controversial dot ball ultimately proved inconsequential as Australia cruised towards a 36-run victory over their Ashes rivals.
Source Agencies
