T20 World Cup 2022: "Never felt entirely sure at any point" - Matthew Wade on Rashid Khan's whirlwind knock against Australia 

Australia T20I stand-in captain Matthew Wade praised Rashid Khan's exceptional innings that almost got Afghanistan over the line against the defending champions on Friday, November 4. The leg-spinner, who has quite the connection with the Adelaide Oval following his six-year Big Bash League (BBL) stint, scored an unbeaten 48 off 23 deliveries as Afghanistan fell short by four runs.

Coming into bat during the 15th over of the innings after the dismissal of skipper Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan got off to a sluggish start. He could only score 10 runs off his first 11 deliveries before changing gears. The equation was incredibly steep for Afghanistan as they required 48 runs to win off the last three overs.

The leg-spinner scored three fours and four sixes in his knock, which ended up being his highest T20I score. Earlier in the contest, he bowled a tight spell of 1-29 to restrict the hosts to 168-8.

Claiming that he was not certain of a victory as long as Rashid Khan was at the crease, Matthew Wade said during the post-match presentation:

"I played him in IPL and I have seen him do it for 3-4 times. But never felt entirely sure at any point."

Wade and Rashid Khan shared a dressing room while representing the Gujarat Titans (GT) in their triumphant Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season. It is to be noted that the leg-spinner boasted an imperious strike rate of 206.82 during the tournament.

"We will stay here tonight and watch the game tomorrow" - Matthew Wade hoping for Sri Lanka to secure a win over England

Australia's narrow margin of victory has led to the fight for the second and final semi-final spot from the group to be a straight shoot-out, without the interference of net run-rate. If England emerges victorious over Sri Lanka at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Saturday, November 5, then Australia will be eliminated from the T20 World Cup 2022.

Hoping for Sri Lanka to come to their aid, Wade said:

"We will stay here tonight and watch the game tomorrow, we will be hoping for an upset. We put ourselves in this position from the get-go, we have been slow in this tournament and hopefully it doesn't cost us."

Speaking on the absence of skipper Aaron Finch and Tim David from playing XI against Afghanistan, Wade added:

"David was very close to selection tonight and we are very hopeful they [David and Finch] will come through if we get there."

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