Matthew Wade admits fault; says he should have walked off ground
Wade man-handled Wood during the Perth T20I of the recent Australia-England series before the T20 World Cup 2022.
Matthew Wade admitted he was wrong in instinctively holding Mark Wood back as he tried to resurrect his ground during a T20I played in Perth during the recent three-match series. The Australian wicketkeeper-batter had a controversial run-in with the England fast-bowler as the latter tried to inflict a run-out.
Trying to recollect his ground at the batting crease, Wade ended up touching Wood's chest with his left-hand as the two cricketers collided with each other for what was an attempted run-out at the striker's end.
Since it became a case of Wade nearly deliberately denying Wood the opportunity to go for the run-out, England skipper Jos Buttler had the option to make an appeal with the standing officials against the batter and get him out for unfairly man-handling his counterpart.
Buttler decided not to go for the appeal, later stating he didn't want to trigger any controversy having just begun a month-long trip to Australia headlined by the T20 World Cup. But if he had indeed gone for one, Matthew Wade says, he would've happily walked off the ground.
Wade accepts fault over Wood controversy
Matthew Wade said when he revisited the incident on the highlights package, he found his act "horrible" looking on the screen. But the cricketer insisted it wasn't a deliberate attempt on his part to stop Wood from going for the run-out.
Talking on the 'The Unplayable Podcast' organised by cricket.com.au, Wade said: "That looked horrible when I saw it after the game. It was one of those things that just happened so fast."
"I think Kane Richardson said to me when I got off the ground, 'You pushed him, basically'. I was like, 'No, I didn't'. And then I saw the replay and I was like, 'Well, yeah, I did'."
Wade also said he was feeling a touch dizzy after a blow on his head off the previous ball when he top-edged a bouncer from Wood on his helmet gear.
"(Wood bowling at) 150 (kph), decent crowd – at first I didn't know if I hit it. It hit me in the head hard, it rung my bell a little bit, (I) went to run down the wicket, Davey (Warner) sent me back, I turned and saw point running in."
"Then I wasn't sure if I was going to get run out or where the actual ball was. It all just happened literally like that. And then next minute, I was on the ground, looked up and the ball was like coming down. So yeah, it didn't look great," he added.
Buttler and Wood weren't at all pleased by Wade's stopping act when the incident took place but the England skipper decided not to make any appeal with the match officials, choosing to avoid the controversy rather than putting his counterpart's physical contact with his teammate up for a test of laws.