- Australia defeated Namibia by nine wickets on Tuesday to secure their spot in the Super 8 stage, and Josh Hazlewood later said it might be in their “best interest” to eliminate England from the T20 World Cup.
- Following Scotland’s decisive victory over Oman, England can only advance to the Super 8 based on net run rate, meaning that Australia, their longtime rivals, will decide their fate.
- First things first, England needs to defeat Namibia on Saturday and Oman on Thursday. If Jos Buttler’s squad can pull that off, all attention will be on the last Group B match between Australia and Scotland.
- Hours after England’s match against Namibia ends, the St Lucia match will go off, giving Australia ample time to calculate the exact margin of victory that will guarantee them top spot in the group, while Scotland advances as runners-up.
- “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 at a news conference after he claimed two for 18 as Namibia was dismissed for 72.
- We’ve faced some serious challenges from them in T20 cricket, so I believe it would be best for everyone if we could remove them from the competition.
- It will be intriguing to observe because, I don’t believe, the squad has ever really been in this situation before.
- “People, not me, will decide whether or not we have conversations or just try to play the way we played tonight again.”
- At North Sound, Hazlewood caused early damage for Australia with two early wickets, while Adam Zampa, who finished with excellent figures of four for twelve, went through the rest of Namibia’s line-up while Gerhard Erasmus made 36.
- With Travis Head hitting 34 off 17 balls and adding 53 for the second wicket with captain Mitchell Marsh, who finished unbeaten on 18, Australia needed just 34 balls to chase down 73.
- After Australia won for the third time in a row, they advanced to the Super 8 stage and back to the Group B summit, but soon after, attention turned to England’s chances of making it out of the tournament.
- Australia has little motive to aim for a large victory over Scotland on Saturday because they will not carry a net run-rate into the Super 8.
- When asked what it would take to help Australia defeat England, seam bowler Hazlewood, an Australian, said, “Not too sure really.”
- “Drag it out, even if you simply get close and knock it around.
- “I think it’s almost more essential to draw confidence from winning and winning well than it is to attempt to knock someone else out, but there are a couple possibilities there.
- “They (England) still have a great deal of work ahead of them. Therefore, I believe that when we get closer to that kind of material, it will become obvious.
- However, Australia will need to be aware of the terms of the ICC code of conduct.
- The ICC’s code of conduct states that Article 2.11 is meant to stop the manipulation of international matches for improper strategic or tactical reasons (like when a team purposefully loses a pool match in an ICC tournament to influence the standings of other teams in that ICC event).
- It may also pertain to improperly manipulating a net run rate, bonus point accumulation, or other situations.
Source:
independent
