Josh Hazlewood celebrates against England in T20 World Cup

Australia quick Josh Hazlewood has admitted that his side will look at ways to mathematically end England's hopes of qualifying for the Super Eights, when they take on Scotland in the men's T20 World Cup.

England's qualification hopes just don't depend on winning the next two matches: they would also require other results to go their way. Australia and Scotland currently have higher net run rates than England. With their win over Namibia, Australia have already qualified from the group, leaving space for just one more team.

Here's what England need to push their net run-rate over Scotland's.

If Australia lose to Scotland, it would end England's qualification hopes. At the same time, if Australia lose by a margin narrow enough, it would still keep Scotland's net run rate above England's. Given that it would be a fresh slate from the Super Eights, Australia wouldn't mind it if the manage a not-so-big margin of victory.

Speaking to reporters after their win over Namibia – a triumoh that propelled their net run-rate to +3.580 – Josh Hazlewood was asked whether Australia would be intentionally doing something to make it difficult for England to progress.

"Yeah, I think so," Hazlewood said. "In this tournament you potentially come up against England at some stage again and as you said they're probably one of the top few teams on their day and 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."

 

"But yeah, it'll be interesting to see. We've never really been in this position before as a team I don't think, so whether we have discussions or not, we'll just try and play it again the way we did tonight. Yeah, that'll be up to people, not me."

"You just knock it around and drag it out"

When asked how exactly would it materialise, Hazlewood did mention the option of taking the game close "and knocking it around".

"Not too sure really, whether you get close and you just knock it around and drag it out," he said. "There's a few options there, but as you said, to take confidence from winning and winning well, I think that's almost more important than potentially trying to knock someone else out. They've still got a lot to do on their behalf as well, so I think it'll become clearer the closer we get to that sort of stuff."

"England clearly have their own work to do"

Before the Namibia game, coach Andrew McDonald was also asked about England's chances, but remained coy, admitting they weren't too concerned about the 2022 champions. He did indicate that the side could rest players against Scotland.

"We're not really focused on England and where they're at," he said. "We played them, we've moved past them and we'll do what's important to us within those [remaining] game. England have clearly got their own work to do in the next couple of games.

"We were put in a similar situation in the last T20 World Cup [2022] where we had to chase the net run rate. It's always difficult, you're always dependent on other results and it's not a nice situation to be in. But that's for them to work through, not us."

Australia defeated Namibia by nine wickets and 86 balls remaining to become the second team, after South Africa, to seal a Super Eights spot. In men's T20 World Cups, England and Australia have a 2-2 record against each other.

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