"Doesn’t take much to fire Wadey up" - Adam Zampa opens up on dead-ball incident in ENG vs AUS T20 World Cup 2024 match
Australian spinner Adam Zampa feels Matthew Wade didn't intend to face the ball, which the umpire eventually didn't rule it as a dead ball in the T20 World Cup 2024 match against England in Barbados. The New South Wales cricketer feels the incident fired Wade up.
The incident occurred in the 18th over of Australia's innings sent down by Adil Rashid as a loud bout of music distracted the southpaw. However, Wade played at that delivery despite initially backing down, with umpire Nitin Menon refusing to rule it out as a dead ball.
Speaking to reporters after the match, Zampa detailed the incident and said, as quoted by cricket.com.au:
"It's very rare for him to block the next one, especially Wadey. I think he didn’t really have intention (to face up) – 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. 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."
The Tasmanian had an argument with the umpire, who asked him to face the ball without complaining. The veteran keeper-batter remained unbeaten on 17 off 10 deliveries to lift Australia to 201 in 20 overs.
"You hear his voice and that makes a huge difference" - Adam Zampa on Matthew Wade
The 32-year-old also pointed to Wade's energy behind the stumps, as the reason why Australia were able to break open the game against England. He added:
"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."
Zampa and Pat Cummins picked up two wickets between them, while Josh Hazlewood and Marcus Stoinis snared one apiece to restrict England to 165/6. As a result, they secured a 36-run victory to stake a strong claim for the Super 8 stage,