“In this tournament, you potentially could come up against England at some stage again and they’re probably one of the top few teams on their day. 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.”
By the time Josh Hazlewood walked into the press conference and articulated the temptation to manipulating the way his team tackle their final league game against Scotland, Australia had already made quite the statement on Tuesday (June 11) night in Antigua. The former champions had decimated the hapless Namibians in one of the most brutally one-sided contests in T20 World Cup history.
The game had lasted all of 22.3 overs in total as the Aussie top-order chased down their meagre total of 73 within their powerplay overs. It also meant that Mitchell Marsh, who hit the winning runs in a flurry of boundaries, and his team had become only the second team in the tournament to officially qualify for the Super 8s.
But it’s somehow Hazlewood’s admission that there might be some thought put into Australia playing an intentional hand in England not joining them in the second phase of the World Cup, however, will resonate as the bigger statement of the day. It’s already started making headlines, understandably.
To make it clear, the fast bowler never quite categorically confirmed or revealed whether his team were actually assured of going through with it. In some ways, he didn’t have to. Just hinting at it seemed good enough. He did, however, not hold back from exploring the options as to how Australia might enable Scotland to get through on the basis of net run rate, even while focusing on continuing their winning run in the tournament.
“Not too sure really. Whether you get close and just knock it around and drag it out. There’s a few options there. But as you said to take confidence from winning and winning well, 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,” said Hazlewood.
“It’ll be interesting to see. Never really been in this position before as a team I don’t think. Whether we have discussions or not, or we just try and play again the way we played tonight, that’ll be up to people, not me,” he added.
Hazlewood is right about his team not having been in this position, where they hold sway over another team’s future in the World Cup. Firstly, they are even in that position because they played their part by beating England comprehensively in their clash last week in Barbados. And comparisons will be made to the 1999 men’s 50-over World Cup where Australia attempted to “go slow” against the West Indies in order to stop New Zealand, who’d beaten them earlier in the league phase, from qualifying. But in that case, there was a clear advantage for Steve Waugh’s team doing so, since in that particular format, first-round results had a direct impact on the Super Six stage, which followed. Teams would carry the two points into that second phase if the team that they’d defeated qualified alongside them. And having New Zealand, who did qualify regardless, in the Super Six did mean Australia starting that phase with two fewer points.
It’s very different if they were to employ that strategy again this time around. It would be more about avoiding a potential clash against England in either the semi-final or the final rather than having some sort of disadvantage themselves when the Super 8s commence next week. Alongside of course doing a favour to the other teams by ensuring that the defending champions are out of the picture in the early going. In addition to of course this being England of all teams who they’d be helping get knocked out.
For, unlike in 1999, the first round here in 2024 in the Caribbean has little relevance to the next round, till the time you qualify. There is no carrying forward of points or net run-rates or even positions, since they too are predetermined. Australia were always going to be “Team B2” once they qualified based on their seedings, regardless of where they finished on the table.
“It’s a little bit strange that it doesn’t go through the tournament. This is probably the first T20 world cup I’ve played that’s set up this way. Or first World Cup in general that’s set up this way. It’s a little bit different. But I think the work you do in the round games and if you go through undefeated and have a good run rate, it doesn’t really count for much in the Super 8s. so it’s a strange one but that’s how it is,” like Hazlewood put it.
It’s already been a dominant start to their campaign from Australia, accentuated even further by their thrashing of Namibia. But it could only get sweeter if they were to play a role in pushing England over the ledge, having sent to the brink in the first place by beating them. Whether they do so by altering their own style of play or not remains to be seen. The fact is that they’ll have the English, who don’t forget still have to beat Oman and Namibia, on the edge of their seats, even more than usual.
