England captain Jos Buttler gave his take on umpire Nitin Menon's decision against Australia's Matthew Wade non-dead ball incident during Australia's win against the defending champions on Saturday.
Wicket-keeper Wade made an unbeaten 17 and did not effect a dismissal but the Kensington Oval witnessed Wade fuming in the 18th over of Australia innings in the match against England in Bridgetown, Barbados.
It all started when Wade tried to pull out of the second delivery of an Adil Rashid over. But he ended up putting the bat in line with the ball and defending it. The delivery was deemed a dot instead of a dead ball, which led to an animated Wade arguing with the umpire.
Buttler was behind the stumps, witnessing the entire non-dead ball incident. The English skipper wasn't sure if the Australian pulled away and felt that the umpire decided to give it a dot ball because Wade played the delivery.
"I wasn't quite sure. I think he pulled away and then played it, So I think the umpire was like, well, you sort of played it, but he said he pulled away. And to be honest, I was thinking about many other things at that point. So yeah, whether I should have said, I don't know if he pulled away and let's just carry on. But the umpire seemed to be like, well, because he played it -- it's a dot ball," Buttler said in the post-match press conference.
Wade's compatriot Adam Zampa felt that the left-handed batter backed away and played the shot as he believed it would be considered the same as letting the ball hit his leg.
"I believe that he just thought that, I actually don't know, but he backed away, and he played that shot, and I think he felt like it was basically the same as letting it hit him in the leg, kind of a dead ball, but yeah, it doesn't take much to fire Wade up," Zampa added.
Apart from Wade's heated moment, two of the oldest cricket rivals produced an exhilarating performance with the bat.
Australia opening duo Travis Head and David Warner's fiery 70-run stand laid the foundation for the Baggy Greens. The rest of the batters chipped in valuable contributions which took Australia to their biggest total in the history of the competition -- 201/7.
In reply, England's opening duo Jos Buttler and Phil Salt began the chase in a similar fashion. However, the middle order failed to provide the ideal support. Australia managed to restrict their arch-rival on 165/6 and clinch a thumping 36-run win.
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