Cricket News By TODAYLIVESCORE.INFO - Wade played T20 WC final with grade 2 side strain. Australia's semifinal hero ran the risk of missing out on playing the final due to injury
Australia's semifinal hero ran the risk of missing out on playing the final due to injury
Australia's T20 WC hero Matthew Wade has revealed that he played the final against New Zealand with a grade 2 side strain. It was Wade's 17-ball 41 that brought Australia back from the dead in the semifinal chase against Pakistan, and miraculously took them over the line.
Wade capped off Australia's heist with two ramp shot sixes off one of the most devastating bowlers of the tournament – Shaheen Afridi – to put them on course to winning their first-ever T20 WC title.
“I was a little bit worried the night before the game, for sure,” Wade said. “If I had woken up and I couldn't swing the bat, I wouldn't have played. “But in my mind, they would have had to strap me to the bed. I was always going to go out there and play. But I wouldn't have played if there was a chance it was going to hurt the team.
Wade also said that he tried to hide his discomfort in training on the eve of the final, and felt ‘pretty fine' but Glenn Maxwell caught his bluff.
“I went and hit some balls before the game and bluffed my way through that. Then they made me hit a few more, but I got through it and it felt pretty fine.”
“The way he was gingerly hitting underarms (in the warm-ups)… I said ‘what's going on here? Hit the ball harder!',” Maxwell said. “And he said, ‘I've got a side strain'. I didn't even know.”
Australia captain Aaron Finch said that Wade was unwilling to even look at his scan results, but he knew it was going to be tough for the wicketkeeper batsman as it came back as a grade-two tear in his side.
“There was always a little bit of a fear,” Finch said. “The doctor forced him into a scan. He didn't want to know the result, but I knew… and being a grade two tear in his side, it was going to be tough. But if anyone was going to play, it would have been him. You would have had to cut his leg off.”
“I thought he kept brilliantly (in the final). Towards the backend, I saw him in a bit of pain with a couple of dives and throws. But he was never missing that.”
The 33-year-old Wade, who has now lost his Test spot for the upcoming Ashes, hopes to train all his energies towards next year's T20 WC – his last international assignment.
“That'll be my next motivation – hopefully get to that World Cup, defend the title and then I can sail off into the sunset. I certainly won't be playing (international cricket) beyond that point. That would be my goal from here,” Wade revealed.
Finch's knee take a toll
The Aussie captain too played the tournament through pain, after having undergone a knee surgery in August and ‘pushed hard' at rehabilitation to regain full fitness for the World Cup. Finch reckoned he paid a little price for that during the tournament.
“I pushed the rehab really hard and probably paid the price for it a little bit throughout the tournament,” he said. “I may need a bit more time off at the moment to get that right,” he said, suggesting that he'd miss the start of the Big Bash League, which kicks off on December 5.
“I was never in doubt to miss a game (but) I was in doubt to field anywhere other than first slip. It looked like there was going to be a first slip for 20 overs at one point!
“The boys kept spraying me after the game… (saying) we were here for the IPL, we never saw a catch at slip, we don't need one. And I said ‘yes we do!'.”
