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Follow UsScotland’s Mark Watt has ruffled some feathers in the ongoing T20 World Cup by bowling his famous long ball, which involves bowling almost side-by-side with the umpire instead of popping the crease.
During Scotland's win over Oman on Sunday, Watt bowled Khalid Kail, who pulled away at the last second even before realizing the former had already bowled the ball. Would Australia be worried about that? Australian wicket-keeper Matthew Wade stated that he needs to know when to pull away.
“I have seen that on a few Instagram reels, actually. It's clever bowling. A lot of players are looking to get a little bit of an advantage and to sneak up and bowl a ball from near behind the umpires. Clever. I've just got to make sure I don't pull away when he does it this time,” Wade said ahead of the last league game against Scotland.
“I played international cricket for 15 years, and I'm learning the rules as we go as well. So yeah, I don't actually even know the rule. Like, once you take a stance, and face up, are you saying that you're ready to bowl? I actually have no idea of the rule. So, I think it's just got to be common sense at some stages. But, yeah, we'll see if he, I'm sure he'll pull it out tomorrow at some stage, and we'll see who's on strike. Hopefully, it's not me."
Against England, Wade found himself caught in a controversy when he was distracted by the ground's music, which was supposed to stop when the bowler steamed in. However, it suddenly resumed, giving Wade a belief that Adil Rashid’s ball would be called a dead ball. For which he blocked it, but the umpire gave it a dot ball.
Wade has a run-in with the umpire Nitin Menon, for which he was reprimanded with a demerit point, but later England skipper Jos Buttler stated that a dead ball would have been the right call at that moment.
“Yeah, I just, the music playing at the ground kind of started to die off, but then they've also got a band at the ground. So as that was dying off, the band started playing. So, I thought the music was going back up, so I just pulled away. I think Rush saw me go, so he just followed me.
“It put me in a tough position. If the ball was wider, I would have just let it hit the stumps or whatever, But it was kind of bowled at me, So I just blocked it and thought, play on. I thought it was just going to be called a dead ball, but clearly, to the letter of the law, you can kind of dictate how you want to dictate, but The short boundary to the leg side of the wind was going to the leg side If I was backing away trying to go offside then something was wrong with my thinking, but yeah, it is what it is. That's how they interpret it and we move on,” the Australian wicket-keeper added.
Wade played a massive role in Australia winning the 2021 T20 World Cup—a first for them in the shortest format of the game. Since then, he has been a regular part of the Australian side despite the rise of Josh Inglis. When Wade was asked if he thought of retiring after the 2021 World Cup, the Victorian keeper stated that he was lucky to have won that event, or else he would have probably been shown the door.
“The great players retire, most of us just get sacked, so I would have been sacked after 2021 if we didn't win that one for sure. I mean, that was my last opportunity to put a stamp on that position and thankfully, it went my way and, you know, sliding door moments throughout a long career happen all the time and that's definitely one of them for me,” Wade said.
“At the end of the last one, I was pretty open with George and Ronnie about where I saw myself and I knew I could still have an impact. But if they wanted to move on to the next cycle of players, I fully understood that as well at my age, thankfully. I've stayed around and I had to perform in the 12 months to get here as well.
“So, I feel like I'm at my best when it's the last opportunity or I'm coming towards the end of a stint for Australia. So hopefully, I can pull some good stuff out in the next little bit but it will be the same conversation at the end of this one, mate. It will be where do they see the direction of the group, there's going to be players who go out of this team and I'm more than comfortable if I'm one of them and get the next cycle of players coming in play for Australia, that doesn't bother me at all,” the keeper, who recently retired from first-class cricket said.
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