Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood has hinted at manipulating the result of this weekend’s T20 World Cup 2024 match against Scotland to ensure bitter-rivals England’s elimination from the tournament.
The defending champions are not only facing a must-win situation against Oman and Namibia, but they need to win their last two group matches with a higher net run rate than Scotland to qualify for the Super 8.
Having recorded three wins in as many games, Australia have already qualified for the Super 8 stage from Group B.
The Mitchell Marsh-led side now has an opportunity to change the dynamics of the points table. They can defeat Scotland by a narrow margin to ensure their opponent’s net run rate remains above England.
England’s final group-stage fixture against Namibia finishes around four hours before Australia’s encounter with Scotland, which means the 2021 champions will know the exact margin of victory required for the old enemies to be knocked out.
Addressing the media after Australia’s thumping nine-wicket victory over Namibia in Antigua, Hazlewood conceded that their chances of winning the T20 World Cup would improve if England fail to reach the Super 8.
“In this tournament, you potentially come up against England at some stage again and they’re probably one of the top few teams on their day,” Hazlewood said.
“We’ve had some real struggles against them in T20 cricket. So if we can get them out of the tournament, that’s in our best interest as well as probably everyone else.
“It’ll be interesting to see. (We’ve) never really been in this position before as a team, I don’t think. Whether we have discussions or not, or we just try and play again the way we played tonight, that’ll be up to people, not me,” he added.
Meanwhile, England and Pakistan will also be praying that the rain gods don’t play spoilsport in their remaining T20 World Cup matches.
Both teams, the winners and runners-up from the last edition of the tournament, got their campaigns off to slow starts, with Pakistan suffering a shock loss against the USA in Dallas.
The weather forecasts in Antigua and Florida are not looking good and a washout all that’s needed to knock them out of the tournament.
(Fox Sports Inputs)
