DUBAI: Australia’s Matthew Wade said the team will work better on referrals in the Twenty20 World Cup final after David Warner walked off caught behind without an apparent edge in Thursday’s semi-final win over Pakistan.

The Aussies won by five wickets after Wade and Marcus Stoinis put on an unbeaten stand of 81 to chase down their target of 177 to set up a title clash with New Zealand on Sunday.

The left-handed Warner gave the team a blazing start before he fell to Shadab Khan’s leg spin and walked after being given caught behind for 49 off 30 balls.

But replays suggested the ball made no contact with the bat before heading into the gloves of Mohammad Rizwan as Pakistan celebrated the key wicket amid raucous shouts from the crowd.

“I think there was a noise, he wasn’t sure. Maybe his bat handle clicked or his hand on his bat,” Wade said of the dismissal.

“He didn’t think that he hit it. But I think Glenn [Maxwell] at the other end heard the noise. To be fair, the bat was out there. That was the only thing maybe it could have been. He was potentially thinking that he might have hit it.

“Hopefully something that doesn’t happen in the next match. But we’ve just got to work it out. The thing is you get two [reviews] in these formats. We should have used it.”

Shadab got four wickets including Mitchell Marsh (28), Steve Smith (five), Maxwell (seven) with Australia in trouble at 96-5.

It was then the left-right batting pair of Wade (41 not out) and Stoinis (40 not out) stood firm and took the attack to the opposition.

Wade smoked Shaheen Shah Afridi for three straight sixes in the 19th over — after being dropped on 21 by Hasan Ali — to bring up victory/.

But he refused to call the dropped catch the turning-point.

“I think by the time that the catch drop went down, I was pretty confident we were in a really good position to get the runs,” the 33-year-old Wade said. “If that had happened three or four overs before hand, that would dictate the outcome of the game a little bit more.”

Wade had not been too worried.

“I would still be pretty confident with Pat [Cummins] coming in and Marcus still at the crease, that we could have got the job done anyway,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that was the reason why we won the game.

“Marcus played a terrific innings to be able to get it to a total we started to think could be chaseable towards the end there.

“The way he played freed me up to be able to do what I did at the end there. The way Marcus batted at the end, to be honest, was probably the turning-point of the match.

“To be able to bat with Marcus has been awesome. Obviously played a lot of cricket with him at Victoria and early on in his career. Obviously saw him grow into the cricketer he is today. I know if I can just hang with him for four or five overs, then he’s going to find the boundary. He’s too good and strong.”

Wade said he did not specifically target Shaheen who rattled opposition batsmen throughout the tournament.

“We certainly didn’t go into the game targeting,” Wade said. “He’s a terrific bowler, and I just got lucky tonight, I suppose.”

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2021