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Pat Cummins dismissed the idea of Australia deliberately underperforming against Scotland to eliminate England from the T20 World Cup 2024, emphasizing that it would violate the “spirit of cricket.”

This response came after Josh Hazlewood’s controversial remarks, where he suggested it might be beneficial for Australia if England were knocked out of the competition.

Australia, already through to the Super Eights, faced speculation that they might not play to their full potential in their final Group B match against Scotland to engineer England’s exit. However, this scenario seems less likely after England’s decisive eight-wicket victory over Oman, which improved their net run rate ahead of Scotland’s.

England coach Matt Mott expressed his hope that Hazlewood was joking, and Cummins assured that Hazlewood’s comments were not serious. Cummins stated, “When you go out and play, you’re trying your best every time. And if you’re not, it’s probably against the spirit of cricket.” He added, “I don’t think you can ever go into a game not trying to win. You’re playing an international game in the middle of a World Cup.”

Cummins reiterated Australia’s commitment to competing fully against Scotland, acknowledging their strong performance in the tournament so far. Scotland have so far accumulated 5 points that includes 4 points from their wins against Namibia and Oman while their first match vs England was washed-out due to rain, splitting the points.

England Have Overtaken Scotland’s NRR

England did themselves a world of good with their utter dominant win over Oman, which has now helped them have a better Net Run Rate (NRR) than Scotland. England started the match a NRR of -1.800. However, after they chased 48 runs in 3.1 overs vs Oman and won the match by 8 wickets, England’s NRR has jumped to +3.081, better than Scotland’s 2.164. England will face Namibia in their last match on 15 June while Scotland will be up against Australia the next day.

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