Wade reveals he played T20 WC final with 'grade two' side injury

Australian wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade on Thursday revealed that he had played the T20 World Cup final against New Zealand with a grade two side injury which he had incurred during training on the day before the match at the Dubai International Stadium.

Wade was Australia's hero in the semi-final win against Pakistan where he struck a hat-trick of sixes against Shaheen Afridi in the penultimate over to help his team reach the second final in a T20 World Cup. However, during his preparation for the New Zealand final, he suffered an injury that put his participation in doubt. And although the team management, including the skipper was aware of the severity of the injury, Wade did not want to know about it and instead hit the nets again to continue with his batting practice.

"Day before the game, second last ball before the end of the session I did my side," Wade said on Thursday.

"I didn't really want to go for a scan. But they sent me and then to the physio and the doctor's credit they kind of hid the information from me and just said let's see you pull up tomorrow and we'll go from there.

"It pulled up about the same as what it felt the night before, so I went and hit some balls before the game and I tried to bluff my way through that, then they made me hit a few more so I got through it and felt pretty fine."

Captain Finch later admitted that he knew Wade would play the entire game despite the injury and hailed his wicketkeeping.

"There was always a little bit of a fear," Finch said. "I knew the result being a grade two, I thought that a grade two tear in his side was going to be tough. But if anyone's going to play it would have been him. You would have had to cut his leg off for him not to be out there.

"I thought he kept brilliantly. Towards the back end I saw him in a bit of pain with a couple of dives and throws so yeah, he was never missing that though."

The 34-year-old also added that he felt the semi-final game against Pakistan would be his last international appearance for Australia, but on Thursday revealed that he would want to be part of the team's title-defence campaign at home next year before hanging his boots.

"Hopefully I get a few more games now," Wade said. "I suppose that's been the way I've been looking at it for the last couple of years anyway, to be honest. I never thought I'd get an opportunity to play again.

"Probably internationally I think, you know, this will be the last run at it. I'm contracted for Hobart Hurricanes and for Tassie [Tasmania] for a period of time and I still love playing Shield cricket, I still love playing for Tassie.

"You get to the age where you know it's a natural progression. We've got so many good young keepers coming up. Philippe and Inglis, and Carey is still around so you know those guys are pushing for spots and thankfully I could do what I did last World Cup and hopefully that gives me enough credit to get another crack at it next time.

"But just the progression. Those guys are good players. They're going to be good players for a long period of time and they are going to need some exposure at international level at some stage."