T20 WC: Knocking England out early is 'in our best interests' - Hazlewood after Australia confirm Super 8 spot

After Australia thrashed Namibia in the T20 World Cup to confirm their Super 8 spot, pacer Josh Hazlewood admitted that the one-time winners could try and manipulate any margin of victory against Scotland -- i.e. if they are in a position to do so -- to knockout defending champions England. Jos Buttler & Co. are in a precarious position to stay alive in the competition after being winless post their first two games. The 2022 champions will next face Oman in Antigua.

England's tournament opener saw the clash being abandoned due to rain, after Scotland's innings. In their following tie, England lost to Australia by 36 runs and need full points from their remaining two games to proceed ahead. Australia, with three wins in a row, may look to rest some big players -- as they did versus Namibia on Tuesday (June 11) in Antigua (local time) -- versus Scotland and might be tempted to work around any margin of victory -- ifin such a position -- to eliminate England.

Hazlewood toldreporters after his side's big win against Namibia, "In this tournament you potentially come up against England at some stage again and…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,"

"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 people, not me,"Hazlewood further said.

'To take confidence from winning well is more important thantrying to knock someone else out'

He, however, added, "Whether you get close and you just knock it around and drag it out. There's a few options there but...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."

Regarding the Net Run Rate (NRR) scenario, the exact sums won't be known until England play Oman as well as Namibia. However, there is a high probability ofScotland making it to the next round even with a narrow loss against Australia. This would eventfully eliminate Englandeven if Buttler & Co. win their remaining fixtures.

Given the NRRwon't be carried forward in the next round, Australia won't mind manipulating any margin of victory over the Scotts. However, one can't take Scotland lightly as well. They have it in them to spring in a surprise versus the Aussies (especially if they are considering to rest some of theirkey players). At present, Scotland are placed second in Group B with 5points, with a NRR of +2.164. England have 1 point and a NRR of-1.800. Meanwhile, Australia top this group with 6 points and a healthy NRR of+3.580.

The Australia-Scotland clash will be held at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia on Saturday (June 15).