Veteran Australia wicketkeeper-batter Matthew Wade was one of the big two pillars in the reigning world T20 champions’ successful chase of a mammoth 209 against India at the PCA Stadium, Mohali. With Australia needing 64 off 35 balls, Wade applied the perfect finishing touch with an unbeaten 45 off 21 balls to take his side over the line with four balls to spare.
The chase of 209 highlighted yet again the enviable deep batting depth that Australia has which helps them in acing chases like the one on Tuesday, which Wade pointed out.
At the same time, he felt that a lot of work was left for the visitors’ finishers like him and Tim David in the business end of the chase.
“The way that we structured up and the way that we drove the game early gave us every opportunity at the back end to win the game. Everybody that stepped out had really good intent; even (Josh) Inglis’s was a small inning but it keeps the momentum of the innings rolling.”
“(Scoring at) seven and eight (runs) through that period of kind of puts a lot of pressure on down to the back end as you need 15 an over. So as a team and Tim, I thought we really found a way to drive the game tonight, which was nice. It was a good wicket and a bit of dew came in. The outfield was beautiful as well. We have got a lot of depth to find a way to chase big scores,” said Wade in the post-match press conference.
Wade, who had plundered 41 off just 17 balls and smacked Shaheen Shah Afridi for a hat-trick of sixes in Australia’s victory in last year’s T20 World Cup semifinal, cited his previous experience of playing in India coming in handy to take his team home.
“I think it’s just playing in this country, to be honest, I’ve played enough now to understand it takes a little bit of time to find the pace of the wicket, although that wicket was a terrific wicket, terrific outfield and it’s lovely to bat on. (It) still takes a couple of balls to find your feet a little bit.”
“A young me probably would panic in that situation and try to find a boundary really quicker than I need to. But I had great confidence in that outfield, how fast was running in the wicket that was coming on. If you get bat on a few that you’re going to find a boundary enough, so (that worked).”
Wade went on to heap praise on all-rounder Cameron Green, who opened the batting in a T20 match for the very first time and impressed everyone with his 30-ball 61 in just his second T20I game for Australia. Though many were left surprised over Green opening the batting, Wade showed no such surprise.
“He impresses every time I see him, a bit like Tim (David) was in a couple of years ago for Western Australia. He was a bowler who batted nine and to see where he is now. He’s quite remarkable. But the plan was always for (Cameron) Green to open. That’s what he was going to go in.”
“The coach and captain feel like that’s the best spot for him to really find his feet at T20 level and he showed tonight that it’s going to be his spot going forward for a while. Really impressive to see a young player go out in front of the packed stadium chasing 207 (209).”
“He’d copped a bit of the tap, bowling his last over as well (where Hardik Pandya clobbered him). To turn around and give this performance these are a good sign. We feel Greeny is our top-order player; if something happens, we need to pull him for the World Cup. But yes, really impressive to see.”
