Star Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood has come forward and stated that Australia could try and manipulate their margin of victory in the upcoming T20 World Cup clash against Scotland in an attempt to knock England out of the tournament. However, Australian skipper Mitchell Marsh could face a ban if the team is identified of doing so deliberately.
It is worth noting that after two matches, England find themselves in fourth place in the standings with one loss and one game abandoned. The exact position of the side won't be known before their clashes with Oman and Namibia. However, there could be a possibility that Australia could win the game against Scotland by a narrow enough margin, which could enable Scotland to qualify.
“In this tournament you potentially come up against England at some stage again, 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,” Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
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“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. That'll be up to [other] people, not me,” he added.
Marsh may get banned for next two matches
If Australia does indeed end up going through with it, it could land skipper Mitchell Marsh in a heap of trouble. Marsh could be charged under Article 2.11 of the ICC's code of conduct, which could see him banned for two out of the three Super Eight fixtures that Australia will be playing soon.
The rule is designed to prevent “inappropriate strategic or tactical reasons… such as when a team deliberately loses a pool match in an ICC Event in order to affect the standings of other teams in that ICC Event,” furthermore, it has been clarified that the unfair manipulation of the run rate would fall in the same category with Marsh possibly being charged under a level 2 offence.
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