David Warner and Travis Head led Australia to a comfortable 36-run victory against England in a clash of champions at the Twenty20 World Cup in Barbados.
The first big heavyweight match – a day before India meet Pakistan – failed to live up to the billing as Australia impressively squeezed their old rivals, who hit only three boundaries in the last six overs at Bridgetown’s Kensington Oval.
Matthew Wade speaks to umpire Nitin Menon after a delivery he felt should have been a dead ball.Credit: Getty Images
There was, however, a heated moment between the Ashes rivals, featuring Australian wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and England captain Jos Buttler during the Australians’ batting innings.
Wade pulled away from facing up to England leg-spinner Adil Rashid, seemingly because of music playing over the ground’s loudspeakers, but umpire Nitin Menon did not signal a dead ball as Wade felt he should have. The Australian blocked the delivery, and exchanged words with Buttler behind the stumps.
Buttler later admitted that as captain he could have agreed to call the ball dead and have Rashid bowl it again.
“I think he pulled away and then played it, so I think the umpire was like, ‘Well, you sort of played it’, but he said he pulled away,” Buttler told reporters at Kensington Oval.
“And to be honest, I was thinking about many other things at that point. Whether I should have said, ‘I don’t know if he pulled away and let’s just carry on’. But the umpire seemed to be like, ‘Well, because he played it, it’s a dot ball’.
“I can’t speak for him, whether he looked up late, but he seemed ready and then pulled out very late and I think that’s what the umpire was saying.”