Dubai: Pakistan’s Hasan Ali dropped Aussie batsman Matthew Wade at a crucial juncture of the T20 World Cup semifinal played here Thursday. The batsman then hit the next three deliveries of Shaheen Shah Afridi for sixes to complete a memorable for Australia and propel his team into the final against New Zealand to be played Sunday. Critics of the game have since said that the ‘dropped’ catch was the turning point of the match.
Matthew Wade however, has dismissed such suggestions stating that Australia would have won anyhow. The incident happened in the 19th over of the Australian innings. Wade scored an unbeaten 41 in just 17 balls.
“…It’s hard to say. The dropped catch, I’m not sure. I think we needed 12 runs or something, 14 maybe at that stage. I felt like the game was starting to swing in our direction at that stage anyway,” Wade was quoted as saying Friday by ‘Cricket Australia’.
“I get out there and we’re not sure what’s going to happen, obviously, but I would still be pretty confident with Pat (Cummins) coming in and Marcus (Stoinis) still at the crease. We could have got the job done (victory) anyway. “I wouldn’t say that was the reason why we won the game,” he added.
Wade’s view was in direct contrast to Pakistan captain Babar Azam. He, in the post-match presentation, squarely blamed Ali’s lapse for the loss.
“The turning point was that dropped catch. Had we taken it, the scenario could have been different,” Babar had stated.
The 33-year-old Wade thought otherwise. He said his experience came in handy while handling the tense chase Thursday night. “It certainly helps. Just to be in that situation… Experience is key in these games. Even though we lost a few early wickets and things weren’t going our way early, we never lost hope,” Wade said.
“There was no real panic in the dressing room. We’ve got experience the whole way down. At times it felt like we were going for 12 and 13 an over. But even then we were optimistic. With this crowd, it felt like we were behind the game the whole time. However, it wasn’t the case, Wade added referring to the crowd support Pakistan had during the game.
Wade was asked repeatedly about the dropped catch. However, he was consistently dismissive of it being the moment which turned the match in Australia’s favour.
“…By the time the catch went down. I was pretty confident we were in a really good position to get the runs. If that had happened three or four overs before, that would dictate the outcome of the game a little bit more,” Wade asserted.
“You can focus in on the things that happen really late in the game, but there’s plenty of things that go on without it, throughout a whole game that can dictate a little bit,” added the wicket-keeper batsman.
Pakistan also missed three run-out opportunities during the game. However, Wade once again sought to credit his team’s positive approach rather than the opposition’s lapses for the result.
“I don’t think any of them were the turning points of the match. I think the way Marcus (Stoinis) batted at the end, to be honest, was probably the turning point of the match,” informed Wade.
“…I think the turning point of the game I thought was Marcus’s over against (Haris) Rauf. I thought that kind of, swung the momentum our way and gave us an opportunity to win the game. It’s just an easy thing to do to focus in on missed chances. Yes, maybe it would have gone down late in the last over, but I’m still confident we could have gone home,” he added.