- Josh Hazlewood says Australia could manipulate its result in Scotland
- A big victory over the Scots could allow England to qualify
- But the Australians are tempted to leave England out.
Josh Hazlewood says it is in Australia’s best interest to manipulate the result of their T20 World Cup match against Scotland to eliminate England from the competition.
Defending champions England have made a stunning start to the defense of their crown and are therefore banking on favorable results from Australia and Scotland to avoid elimination.
England need to beat Oman and Namibia and finish the group stage with a higher net run rate than Scotland to qualify for the Super Eight.
But Australia, following its victory over Namibia on Wednesday, has a chance to exploit a flaw in the T20 World Cup pool system. If they only defeat Scotland by a narrow margin, they will ensure that their opponent’s net run rate remains higher than England’s.
Each team’s net run rate has no bearing on the next stage of the tournament, meaning the Australians have no additional motivation to perform at their best against the Scots.
Josh Hazlewood admitted Australia could manipulate their result against Scotland
The Australians could eliminate England if they defeat Scotland by a narrow margin.
And Hazlewood acknowledged Australia are in a “strange” situation but admitted they would prefer to avoid another encounter with England later on, having claimed a 36-run victory in the group stage.
“If you go unbeaten and have a good net performance, it doesn’t count for much,” Hazlewood told reporters during Wednesday’s post-match press conference in Antigua.
“It’s strange.”
England’s final group match against Namibia will conclude around four hours before Australia take on Scotland, so Mitch Marsh’s side will be fully aware of what it will take to eliminate England.
Such a scenario would reignite the ugly Ashes dispute between the teams, which resulted in England avoiding post-series drinks with the Aussies in the wake of the 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”.
Further explaining the conundrum facing Australia, Hazlewood acknowledged that despite England’s poor start, they will inevitably improve as the tournament progresses.
Hazlewood admitted that the “strange” situation has been an enigma for his team
“In this tournament you potentially face England again at some point and they are probably one of the few best teams at the time,” Hazlewood continued.
‘We’ve had some real struggles against them in T20 cricket. So if we can get them out of the tournament, it will be the best for us and probably for everyone else.
‘It will be interesting to see. (We) have never been in this position as a team before, I don’t think.
“Whether or not we have discussions, or just try to play again like we did tonight, that will be up to the people, not me.”
