“It doesn’t take much to fire Wade up,” said Adam Zampa, who produced the most telling bowling contribution in Australia’s 36-run victory over rivals England in their T20 World Cup clash in Barbados.
The temperamental Australia keeper-bat wasn’t a central figure in his team’s victory, scoring only 17* and not effecting any dismissals behind the stumps, but was riled up enough by on-field matters to rouse his teammates to lift their games further. While batting in the first innings, Wade was incensed after seemingly pulling out from facing up to an Adil Rashid delivery. He belatedly blocked the ball after having stepped aside and that was enough for umpire Nitin Menon to not declare a dead ball.
After remonstrating with the umpires, Wade was involved in a heated exchange with Jos Buttler, England’s captain-keeper. After the game, Travis Head said that Wade had heard music continue to play over the loudspeakers as Rashid stepped up to bowl.
“It’s very rare for him to block the next one, especially Wadey,” said Head. “I think he didn’t really have intention [to face the ball] – it followed him, he blocked it, Wadey just asked the question. Wadey obviously felt it went one way and Jos at the time felt it went the other.
In the press conference, Zampa added: “I think he felt like that it was the same basically as letting it hit him in the leg on a dead ball. But it doesn’t take much to fire Wadey up.”
Buttler offered his side of the exchange in the post-match press conference. “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,” the England captain said. “And to be honest, I was thinking about many other things at that point. 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’.
“I can’t speak for him, whether he looked up late, but he seemed ready and then pulled out very late and I think that’s what the umpire was saying,” he added.
The incident seemed to have lit a fuse under Wade as Australia went about trying to defend their highest-ever total at a T20 World Cup. Buttler and his opening partner Phil Salt blazed away 73 runs in the first seven overs before Wade roused Zampa into action and the legspinner, dismissed both the set batters, paving the path for Australia’s ultimately comfortable win.
“Wadey is a fiery guy, super competitive – and something ticked him over a little bit today and that’s what we love about Wadey,” Zampa said. “I think after the six or seventh over mark he came up to me and said, ‘Let’s not sit back here, let’s go. We can’t wait for them to make the mistake because they’re not going to’. Basically stay in the contest.
“That’s the beautiful thing about Wadey, having him behind the stumps – 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.”
In contrast, Zampa reckoned the defending T20 champions were under the pump from the outset and it showed in their body language. Jos Buttler’s match-up-informed decision to bowl two off-spinners – Moeen Ali and Will Jacks – in the PowerPlay backfire as Head and David Warner, Australia’s openers, plundered 74 in the PowerPlay.
“I think they were under the pump and it showed,” Zampa said. “It’s so hard to bowl it in the Powerplay, and if your bowlers aren’t summing up the conditions quickly it can get frustrating.
“Heady and Davey took advantage of it. We try not to be like that. We speak about it a bit. Our leadership isn’t like that. It’s ‘Cummo’ (Cummins, the Test and ODI captain), ‘Bison’ (Marsh) who are very calm. That helps us, as bowlers as well.”
