Australia’s Josh Hazlewood says to knock England out of the T20 World Cup would be “in our best interests as well as probably everyone else” after thrashing Namibia.
Australia chased down Namibia’s first-innings total in just five overs and four balls to stay unbeaten in the T20 World Cup on Tuesday.
Adam Zampa took 4-12 from four overs as they stormed into the Super 8s with one Group B match to spare.
Australia’s final Group B match against Scotland in St Lucia on Saturday could now decide England’s fate, with skipper Jos Buttler knowing they must beat Oman and Namibia in their remaining group matches.
“In this tournament, you potentially come up against England at some stage again. And as I said, they’re probably one of the top few teams, on the day or, you know, we’ve had some real struggles against them in T20 cricket,” said Hazlewood.
“If we can get them out of the tournament then that’s in our best interests as well as probably everyone else.
“It’s a weird thing to say. I’ve never really been in this position before as a team. I don’t think so. Whether we have discussions or not or we just try and play it again the way we did tonight. Again, that’ll be up to people, not me.”
What’s Next?
Australia’s final Group B match is against Scotland in St Lucia in the early hours of Sunday from 1am BST, while England face Namibia in Antigua on Saturday at 6pm – live on Sky Sports. First, England take on Oman on Thursday at 8pm.
Group B standings
England must beat Oman and Namibia and hope Australia can do them a favour and knock Scotland out of the T20 World Cup
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