Australia''s ''best interest'' if England exits early but winning comes first, says Hazlewood

North Sound (Antigua and Barbuda), Jun 12 (PTI) Pacer Josh Hazlewood admitted that it will be in Australia's "best interest" if England are eliminated from the T20 World Cup in the group stage but added that "winning well is more important than potentially trying to knock someone else out".

Defending champions England find themselves in a precarious spot after a washed out game and a heavy defeat against Australia, who have qualified for the Super Eights.

"Yeah, I think so. 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," Hazlewood said after the nine-wicket win against Namibia.

As things stand in Group B, England are fourth with just a point and -1.800 Net Run Rate with two matches remaining.

Even if the two-time champions England win both, they won't be able to go past Scotland, who are second with five points and with a healthy +2.164 NRR.

In order to progress into the Super Eight, Jos Buttler and Co. not only have to win both their remaining games by heavy margins but also hope familiar foes and table leaders Australia hand Scotland a huge defeat to dent the latter's NRR.

When quizzed further about how Australia could hypothetically go about it, Hazlewood said, "Not too sure really, whether you get close and you 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, 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." Hazlewood asserted that against Scotland, Australia will continue playing in a dominant fashion they have so far in the tournament.

"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 (against Namibia) . Yeah, that'll be up to people, not me." Paine urges Australia to 'manipulate' Scotland game to eliminate England ==================================================== Former Australia Test captain Tim Paine wants Mitchell Marsh and Co. to "manipulate" their final group game against Scotland to ensure that England are knocked out of the T20 World Cup.

"Absolutely, they should (manipulate the result) and I’m not even joking. I've spoken to people about this in the last few days. I'm dead serious," Paine said on Sen Radio.

Paine clarified that he doesn't want Australia to lose the match but rather make it close enough for England to be eliminated.

"I'm not sure what the net run rate looks like, you don't have to lose the game, I think they can just let Scotland get close enough." "Again, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Scotland could have a day out. But say, Scotland batted first and got to 140 and we chased it off 19.5 overs to make sure they don’t suffer a big net run rate loss.

"I think England have to win both of their games by about 50 runs to even get up towards Scotland's net run rate. So, it's certainly plausible that you can win the game (but still ensure England don’t progress)," he added.

The former wicketkeeper-batter sees this as a "smart, calculated" move that may help Australia later in the tournament.

"That's not just because it's England. You got to go into these tournaments trying to win a World Cup. Who could certainly pose a threat in the latter rounds? That is England." However, despite the bad start, Paine feels England have the capability to turn things around and defend their title.

"There's no doubt they are still one of the best teams in the world, they got off to a horrible start and now it’s in our hands.

"If you could knock out one of the most highly fancied teams in the tournament and do it in a way that's you're not deliberately losing a game, I'm all for it.

"You're manipulating the net run rates a little bit... you can say whatever you want to say, but to me, it is smart, calculated, tournament play.

“We're there to win a World Cup. I wouldn't want to play England in the semifinal. They've got six or seven guys that could take a game away from you, much like Australia do.

“If you can have a side like that not go through to the next phase, it makes the World Cup easier for you to win.” he added. PTI APA DDV