England needs Australia to beat Scotland in order for them to qualify for Super 8s.
Pat Cummins ruled out Thursday the prospect of Australia underperforming against Scotland in a bid to oust rivals England from the Twenty20 World Cup, saying it would be against the “spirit of cricket”.
Josh Hazlewood, Australia's bowling spearhead, sparked controversy this week when he stated that it would be in Australia's best interests if reigning champions England were eliminated from the competition.
Australia had already qualified for the next round, the Super Eights, and he said they might take it easy in their last Group B game against Scotland this weekend to ensure their bitter rivals' elimination.
That situation now appears less plausible after England smashed Oman by eight wickets on Thursday, moving ahead of Scotland in net run rate with one game remaining against Namibia.
“When you go out and play you’re trying your best every time. And if you’re not, it’s probably against the spirit of cricket. I don’t think you can (go into a game not trying to win) -– ever. You’re playing an international game in the middle of a World Cup.
You still want to try and have a good game and carry that on into the Super Eights. I’ve never stepped onto the field without the mindset of being aggressive like the guys have so far,” Cummins told reporters in St Lucia.
Cummins said he had spoken to Hazlewood and the comments were tongue-in-cheek and “got taken a bit out of context.”
“We’ll go out there and try to play Scotland, who have had a perfect tournament so far, so it’s going to be tough. It’s something you discuss as one of the quirks of the set-up, but it does it change the way we play? Absolutely not,” Cummins added.
(APF inputs)