The OZs@azkhawaja1 pic.twitter.com/zAsJl6gpqz — WaQas Ahmad (@waqasaAhmad8) October 9, 2022
England captain Jos Buttler raised his arms in doubt, but the visitors did not appeal and Wade was spared.
Netizens reacted to this incident by terming it as cheating
Are Ruk Jao Wood Bhai. Kahan catch lene ja rahe ho.#Wade #MatthewWade #MarkWood #AUSvENG pic.twitter.com/Qm54TO0lLj — Avinash Aryan (@AvinashArya09) October 9, 2022
Should we laugh? This is an international cricket & #MatthewWade tries to stop mark wood from catching the ball. Absolutely pathetic by wade! pic.twitter.com/E43jcTfXTR
— Dhananjay Kumar (@DkReportsHere) October 9, 2022
WHAT A SCENE!#MarkWood was running to catch the ball and #MatthewWade pushed him away!
And #England didn’t appeal!
Is this SPIRIT OF THE GAME?#ENGvAUS #EngvsAus #AUSvENG #AUSvsENG pic.twitter.com/cML1c9kQcY — BlueCap (@IndianzCricket) October 9, 2022
India - Bunch of Pranksters
Australia - Bunch of Cheaters #matthewwade #ausvseng pic.twitter.com/qV4d7CnpBF — Md Nazim Raza (@MdNazimRaza10) October 9, 2022
Wade, however, could not take Australia over the line as he fell in the final over to Sam Curran. England went on to win the high-scoring thriller by eight runs.
Alex Hales and Jos Buttler gave the visitors the perfect start, putting on an opening stand of 132 runs. Hales hit 84 off 51 deliveries, while Buttler smashed 68 off just 32 balls.
As the rest of the batters failed to fire, Chris Woakes hit an unbeaten 13 off 7 to help power them to 208/6.
Mark Wood then took three key wickets to help restrict Australia to 200/9 as England took a 1-0 series lead.