England’s T20 World Cup fate is in Australia’s hands (Picture: Getty)
Josh Hazlewood says it is in Australia’s ‘best interests’ to manipulate the result of their final T20 World Cup group game against Scotland to ensure England are knocked out.
Following a wash-out against Scotland and a 36-run defeat to Australia, England need to win their final two group games to stand any chance of reaching the Super 8 stage.
Jos Buttler’s side, who are the reigning champions following their triumph in Australia two years ago, face Oman and Namibia in the space of three days as they bid to keep their T20 World Cup hopes alive.
But even two victories against the minnows may not be enough to avoid another embarrassing group-stage exit following a disastrous 50-over World Cup last year.
Scotland know a surprising victory over Australia in their final game will see them progress and while that is unlikely, even losing by a certain margin could be enough for Richie Berrington’s side to finish above England on run rate.
The Scots, who were deprived the chance of upsetting England in their tournament opener, picked up two points and boosted their net run rate with an emphatic seven-wicket win over Oman last time out after edging past Namibia.
Having already booked their place in the Super 8s courtesy of an eight-wicket win over Namibia, Australia find themselves in a ‘weird’ position where they could manipulate any possible margin of victory over Scotland in order to eliminate rivals England.
Scotland could progress at the expense of England (Picture: Getty)
‘In this tournament, you potentially come up against England at some stage again,’ Australia bowler Hazlewood said. ‘And as I said, they’re probably one of the top few teams, on the day or, you know, we’ve had some real struggles against them in T20 cricket.
‘If we can get them out of the tournament then that’s in our best interests as well as probably everyone else.
‘It’s a weird thing to say. I’ve never really been in this position before as a team. I don’t think so. Whether we have discussions or not or we just try and play it again the way we did tonight. Again, that’ll be up to people, not me.’
Asked how Australia could manipulate the Scotland game, Hazlewood added: ‘Whether you get close and you just knock it around and drag it out.
‘There’s a few options there but to take confidence from winning and winning well, I think that’s almost more important than potentially trying to knock someone else out.
‘They’ve still got a lot to do on their behalf as well, so I think it’ll become clearer the closer we get to that sort of stuff.’
South Africa are the only other team to have already secured a place in the Super 8 stage, with Aiden Markram’s side beating Sri Lanka, Netherlands and Bangladesh to top Group D.
India and co-hosts USA are well-placed to progress from Group A at the expense of 2022 runners-up Pakistan, while Afghanistan and West Indies are level on points in Group B and could deny New Zealand a place in the next round.
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