Josh Hazlewood says it is in Australia‘s ‘best interest’ to manipulate the result of their T20 World Cup game against Scotland in order to knock England out of the competition.
Reigning champions England have made a shocking start to the defence of their crown and are therefore relying on favourable results from Australia and Scotland to avoid elimination.
England need to defeat Oman and Namibia, and finish the group stage with a higher net run rate than Scotland to qualify for the Super Eights.
But Australia, following their win over Namibia on Wednesday, have the chance to exploit a flaw in the T20 World Cup group system. If they only defeat Scotland by a narrow margin, it 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 to their absolute best against the Scots.
Josh Hazlewood has admitted Australia might manipulate their result against Scotland
The Aussies could eliminate England if they only defeat Scotland by a slim margin
And Hazlewood acknowledged that Australia are in a ‘strange’ predicament, but admitted that they would prefer to avoid another encounter with England further down the line, having already secured a 36-run victory in the group stage.
‘If you got through undefeated and have a good net run rate, it doesn’t count for much,’ Hazlewood told reporters during Wednesday’s post-match press conference in Antigua.
‘It’s a strange one.’
England’s final group game against Namibia will conclude roughly four hours before Australia take on Scotland, so Mitch Marsh’s team will be fully aware of what is required to knock England out.
Such a scenario would reignite the teams’ ugly Ashes feud which resulted in England avoid post-series drinks with the Aussies in the wake of the stumping drama between Jonny Bairstow and Alex Carey.
Australia retained the urn but England claimed a moral victory in playing the series in ‘the spirit of the game’.
Further explaining the conundrum Australia face, Hazlewood acknowledged that despite England’s poor start, they will inevitably improve as the tournament progresses.
Hazlewood admitted that the ‘strange’ predicament has presented a conundrum for his team
‘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 continued.
‘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.’
