“I would have never hit that 6” - Warner breaks down Wade’s match-winning knock against Pakistan in T20 World Cup 2021

Australian opener David Warner has stated that he cannot play the kind of audacious shots Matthew Wade pulled off during his sensational knock against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup semi-final.

Wade, Australia’s wicketkeeper-batter during the T20 World Cup, clobbered an unbeaten 41 off 17 as the Aussies stunned tournament favorites Pakistan in the semis of the ICC event. The maverick left-hander hit three consecutive sixes off left-arm seamer Shaheen Afridi to lift Australia into the final.

Asked for his views on Wade’s brilliant cameo, Warner candidly admitted that he couldn’t have played the kind of strokes that his fellow left-hander did against Afridi. Speaking on chat show Backstage with Boria, the Aussie opener confessed:

“In those situations, I can’t play the shot that he plays. If I was out there, I would never have hit that six because I can’t play that shot. Having a guy like him to come in like he did…”

Taking a dig at critics, Warner added:

“Specifically in Australia, they wrote Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis off. They said they can’t win games for Australia. Yes, they can. They won the biggest game for us.”

Elaborating on the contest between Wade and Afridi in the closing moments of the T20 World Cup semi-final, the 35-year-old opined that experience made a big difference in the end. Warner explained:

“The one thing that stood out for us was, and this is no disrespect to Shaheen, experience plays a big role in big games. Matthew Wade, he will always ramp. Shaheen Afridi’s best delivery is going to be a yorker. If he misses his yorker, and if Wade hits him behind (the wickets), even with a fielder back, it’s going to go for six because he is bowling at 150 kph. If you don’t execute it properly, you are going to drop it short. That’s exactly what he did.”

While Wade was the outstanding performer for Australia in the T20 World Cup semi-final against Pakistan, Stoinis also contributed a crucial 40* off 31 balls.

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Warner top-scored for Australia in the semis against Pakistan

Wade and Stoinis finished things off in the T20 World Cup semi-final against Pakistan, featuring in an unbeaten 81-run stand for the sixth wicket.

Before that, it was Warner who again set up the 177-run chase of with a fluent 20-ball 49, a knock which featured three fours and as many sixes.

Pakistan leg-spinner Shadab Khan, however, claimed 4 for 26 as the Aussies stumbled from 51 for 1 to 96 for 5. Wade’s heroics, though, knocked the Men in Green out of the T20 World Cup.