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Matthew Wade innings lights up BBL as Hobart Hurricanes caught in 'timed out' drama

The 35-year-old wound back the clock to help his side take down the Melbourne Renegades.

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·4-min read
Matthew Wade and Nathan Ellis, pictured here in action for the Hobart Hurricanes.
Matthew Wade blasted the Hobart Hurricanes to victory after drama over the time it took them to bowl their overs. Image: Fox Cricket/Getty

Matthew Wade wound back the clock in the BBL on Saturday night, producing a blistering knock of 82 off 50 balls to get the Hobart Hurricanes over the line against Melbourne Renegades. After missing the previous game with back spasms, the 35-year-old got his side past the Renegades' total of 5-183 with an over to spare and six wickets in hand.

Wade shared a 140-run partnership with Mac Wright, who played a supporting role early but finished with five sixes and five fours in his 63 off just 36 balls. Wade smacked nine fours and three sixes in a vintage innings, and by the time he was caught in the deep in the 17th the damage had been done.

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His innings came after some drama erupted over a fielding restriction imposed on the Hurricanes for not bowling their overs in the allotted time. If teams don't bowl their overs by a certain time, they can only have four fielders outside the inner circle opposed to the usual five.

The umpires ruled that the Hurricanes hadn't bowled their overs by the 8.45pm cut-off time, but didn't appear to inform them that they'd applied the fielding restriction. Chris Jordan then bowled the first ball of the final over with five fielders outside the circle, which saw the umpire call a no-ball because they had more than four in the outfield.

Hurricanes captain Nathan Ellis appeared perplexed by the call, while Wade later said there wasn't much communication from the umpires about what was happening. "The umpires told Nathan we had 60 seconds to bowl the last ball (inside the allotted time) and there was no real communication from there," Wade said.

Matthew Wade, pictured here in action for the Hurricanes against the Renegades in the BBL.
Matthew Wade was in fine form as the Hurricanes beat the Renegades in the BBL. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)

"But apparently the time ran out on the board and the match referee must have seen it and one of the batters saw it. But the umpires never really communicated to Nathan that we needed another (fielder) in.

"It was kind of like radio silence almost. After the initial 'we needed 60 seconds to bowl the first ball' then there was nothing. I don't know exactly what happened."

Tim David told Fox Cricket that if the Hurricanes had've been informed they needed an extra fielder inside the circle they would have done so. "We were told the previous over the time on the scoreboard was wrong and we had until 8.45 (pm)," he said while mic'd up. "The scoreboard said 8.43, then we bowled a no-ball. Got to respect the umpire's decision."

Matthew Wade innings lights up BBL in vintage display

The no-ball resulted in the Renegades receiving a free hit, and they subsequently hit a boundary off it. Thankfully it didn't prove costly as Wade's innings helped get the Hurricanes home.

Wade later revealed that he was only about a 50/50 chance of playing before he got to the ground. "We needed that to get things kick-started. Hopefully we can get rolling now," he said. "I got moving before I came to the ground. I hit up and it felt good to go, so I went for it."

The Hurricanes are now 1-2 from three games, while the Renegades are without a win in four matches. Quinton de Kock (38 from 22) and Joe Clarke (38 from 25) got the Renegades off to a quick start, but they lost wickets in regular interviews and their scoring was stalled as a result.

with AAP

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