‘Call it what it is’- Twitter furious at Matthew Wade for blatant ‘cheating’ against England in first T20I

Controversy and England- Australia match go hand in hand. Be it Jonny Bairstow- Cameron Bancroft headbutt incident or Moeen Ali claiming he was called ‘Osama’, the two teams have had a history of bad blood between them.

While most often this brings out high-intensity cricket, time and again players take it too in search of a win. Something like this has happened in an Australia- England match again, this time, Australian wicket-keeper batter Matthew Wade found himself at the centre of it.

While batting in the 17^th over, Wade hit the ball straight upward and was in a reachable position for the bowler Mark Wood. What happened next has put a question mark on Wade’s integrity as he appears to stop Wood from taking the catch.

The Australian batter manages in his ploy and saves his wicket as Wood fails to reach the catch. Wade however could not take his team to a victory as Australia lose the game by eight runs. Earlier, the visiting team had scored a massive 208 runs in 20 overs on the back of a sensational opening partnership from England.

Jos Butler scored a quickfire 68 off 32 whereas Alex Hales (84) brought out his own half-century as the two batters took Australian bowlers to the cleaners. While chasing David Warner brought his A game to the crease scoring 73 off of 44 deliveries. Other Australian batters however failed to impress and none could create a big score.

Mathew Wade came at number seven and played cautiously while helping the hosts inch towards the target. While his knock of 21 off of 15 would have been a valiant effort and garnered good praise, his un-sportsmanship tactic will hoard the limelight.

Twitter was understandably angry at Matthew Wade for going against the ‘Spirit of the game’: