PERTH: England captain Jos Buttler declined to appeal against Australia’s Matthew Wade for obstructing the field in the series-opening T20 match in Perth on Sunday but said he might be less forgiving in the upcoming World Cup.

The match was delicately poised with Australia needing 39 off 23 balls to win when Wade top-edged a short ball from Mark Wood into his helmet.

The ball careened into the air and Wood ran down to Wade’s end to attempt a catch but the Australian wicketkeeper-batsman stuck an arm out to impede him.

Buttler said he was asked by the on-field umpires whether he intended to appeal but decided to let the moment pass. England went on to win by eight runs.

“They asked if I wanted to appeal and I said ‘no’. I’ve only just got to Australia so I thought just carry on with the game,” Buttler told reporters.

“It was hard because I didn’t know what I was appealing for ... I could have asked some of the other boys to see if they had a better view but thought I would get on with the game.”

Asked whether he would appeal for a similar incident at the World Cup, Buttler said: “Maybe.”

Wade was criticised heavily on social media for blocking Wood, and his former Test team-mate Usman Khawaja said on Twitter: “Can’t believe [England] didn’t appeal.”

Australia all-rounder Marcus Stoinis defended Wade.

“There’s a lot that goes on there when you get hit in the head and you’re running around,” he told reporters. “You don’t know where the ball is ... it is chaos.”

Earlier, Buttler (68 off 32 balls) and his fellow opener Alex Hales (84 from 51) smashed a new-look Australian attack to all parts of the ground in a brutal display of power hitting as they helped England to 208-6, a commanding total which proved too much for Australia despite a gallant 44-ball 73 from David Warner.

The world champions scored 200-9 in their 20 overs, disappointing a 25,755-strong crowd starved of international cricket for nearly three years due to strict border controls in Western Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The series moves to Canberra on Wednesday.

Scoreboard

ENGLAND:

J. Buttler c Richardson b Ellis 68 A. Hales c David b Richardson 84 B. Stokes c Warner b Stoinis 9 H. Brook c Richardson b Sams 12 M. Ali c Marsh b Ellis 10 S. Curran b Ellis 2 D.Malan not out 2 C. Woakes not out 13 EXTRAS (LB-2, NB-1, W-5) 8 TOTAL (for six wickets, 20 overs) 208 DID NOT BAT: Adil Rashid, R. Topley, M. Wood FALL OF WICKETS: 1-132 (Buttler), 2-165 (Stokes), 3-167 (Hales), 4-183 (Brook), 5-193 (Curran), 6-194 (Moeen) BOWLING: Green 3-0-38-0 (1w, 1nb), Richardson 4-0-39-1, Sams 4-0-42-1 (2w), Ellis 4-0-20-3, Swepson 2-0-31-0, Stoinis 3-0-36-1 (1w)

AUSTRALIA:

D. Warner c Hales b Wood 73 C. Green c Buttler b Topley 1 M. Marsh b Rashid 36 A. Finch run out (Curran) 12 M. Stoinis c Malan b Wood 35 T. David c Hales b Wood 0 M. Wade c Stokes b Curran 21 D. Sams c Brook b Topley 6 N. Ellis b Curran 0 K. Richardson not out 0 M. Swepson not out 2 EXTRAS (LB-4, W-10) 14 TOTAL (for nine wickets, 20 overs) 200 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-15 (Green), 2-86 (Marsh), 3-105 (Finch), 4-158 (Stoinis), 5-158 (David), 6-173 (Warner), 7-193 (Sams), 8-197 (Wade), 9-198 (Ellis) BOWLING: Woakes 2-0-21-0, Topley 4-0-36-2 (4w), Wood 4-0-34-3 (2w), Curran 4-0-35-2 (1w), Rashid 3-0-41-1 (1w), Stokes 2-0-18-0 (2w), Moeen 1-0-11-0 RESULT: England won by eight runs.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2022