- Josh Hazlewood says Australia could manipulate the result in Scotland
- A tough win over the Scots could allow England to qualify
- But the Australians are tempted to crash England
Josh Hazlewood says it is in Australia’s ‘best interests’ to manipulate the result of their T20 World Cup match against Scotland to knock England out of the competition.
Reigning champions England have made a shock start to defending their crown and are therefore banking on favorable results from Australia and Scotland to avoid elimination.
England must beat Oman and Namibia and finish the group stage with a higher net run percentage than Scotland to qualify for the Super Eights.
But Australia, after their win over Namibia on Wednesday, have an opportunity to exploit a flaw in the T20 World Cup group system. If they beat Scotland by just a small margin, this will ensure that their opponent’s net run rate remains superior to England’s.
Each team’s net run rate has no bearing on the next stage of the tournament, meaning the Aussies have no extra motivation to perform at their best against the Scots.
Josh Hazlewood has admitted Australia could manipulate their result against Scotland
The Aussies could knock out England if they beat Scotland by a narrow margin
And Hazlewood acknowledged Australia are in a ‘strange’ situation but admitted they would prefer to avoid another meeting with England further down the line having already secured a 36-point win in the group stages.
“If you come through it undefeated and have a good net run rate, that doesn’t count for much,” Hazlewood told reporters at the post-match press conference in Antigua on Wednesday.
“It’s a strange one.”
England’s final group match against Namibia will be around four hours away before Australia take on Scotland, so Mitch Marsh’s team will be fully aware of what it will take to knock out England.
Such a scenario would reignite the teams’ ugly Ashes feud, which would see England avoid post-series drinks with the Aussies in the wake of the blunt drama between Jonny Bairstow and Alex Carey.
Australia retained the urn, but England claimed a moral victory by playing the series in ‘the spirit of the game’.
Hazlewood further explained the conundrum facing Australia, acknowledging that despite England’s poor start, England will inevitably improve as the tournament progresses.
Hazlewood admitted the ‘strange’ situation has presented a conundrum for his team
“In this tournament you may come up against England again at some point and they are probably one of the best teams on the day,” Hazlewood continued.
“We’ve had some real struggles against them in T20 cricket. So if we can get them out of the tournament, it’s in our interest, and probably everyone else’s as well.
‘It will be interesting to see. (We’ve) never really been in this position as a team, I don’t think.
“Whether we have discussions or not, or whether we just try to play again like we played tonight, that will be up to the people, not me.”