Australia can and most likely will put England through to the next stage of the T20 World Cup with victory today in St Lucia.
England survived yet another scare early this morning when rain delayed the start of their last Group B match against Namibia before setting up a comfortable victory in a rain-shorted game.
Having already has a washout against Scotland to start the tournament and a loss to Australia, another washout would have spelt disaster for England.
However, they have now moved into second place in Group B above Scotland on run rate, meaning that Scotland must beat undefeated Australia to regain second place and prevent England from going through to the Super Eights stage, where the top two teams from all through groups make up the next round.
With Australia already qualified for the Super Eights their match against Scotland is of no consequence, raising fears from England’s cricket commentariat that Australia may play dead against Scotland to tip out England.
Josh Hazlewood poured fuel on the fire in recent days by claiming it would be to Australia’s advantage if England failed to go through.
However fellow pace ace Pat Cummins insisted Hazlewood was joking and it would be against the spirt of cricket for Australia to go anything less than full throttle.
Pat Cummins claims that Australia will be going flat out against Scotland.Credit: AP