England break silence after Australia receive suggestion of ‘fixing’ to knock out Jos Buttler And Co.

Ahead of his team’s T20 World Cup game against Oman, England coach Matthew Mott expressed hope that Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood’s comments about playing to knock England out of the tournament were meant in humor. England defeated Oman in their Group B clash at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium on Friday. England is at risk of being eliminated from the tournament. Sitting fourth in Group B after a no result against Scotland and a defeat to Australia, defeat to Namibia in the final match will eliminate the defending champions.

Australia have already qualified for the Super Eights and if Scotland win on Sunday, the Scots could also progress to the Super Eights alongside the 2021 champions.

Speaking of playing to eliminate England, Hazlewood said in the pre-match press conference that eliminating England would be in everyone’s interests.

“In this tournament you will potentially face England at some point again and they are probably one of the best teams at the time and we have had some real difficulties against them in T20 cricket so if we can get them out of the tournament that is in our interests and probably in everyone else,” Hazlewood said, according to ESPNcricinfo.

Mott downplayed Hazlewood’s comments.

“To be honest, I was informed of this this morning. Look at me, this is out of our control and I think I know Josh very well and I know his integrity. a great sense of humor and hopefully that’s what he was doing,” Mott said in the pregame press conference.

Mott said that regardless of Josh’s comments or any other outside noise about qualifying, run rates, etc., the team is focused on winning the next game.

“I know Jos (Buttler) spoke really well yesterday about how we need to try really hard in this game too and I think that’s what teams do. by the looks of it. We’re going in with a lot of confidence, I think. We have been playing good T20 cricket for a while now. It didn’t work out against Australia in the last game, but I think we put our structure in place. , we are very confident. Anyone who saw us train yesterday could see a group excited and ready for the challenge that lies ahead,” he added.

Mott also admitted that although England showed some glimpses of their fearless cricket, the tournament was disjointed for them.

The coach also said that the team aims to get some quick wickets during the powerplay.

“I really think it’s a different game when you take wickets in the power play, it’s something we aim to do and hope it happens in this game. It makes your life a lot easier when you can come out of the power play and the batsmen aren’t set, but I think with time we will resolve that and certainly that is a big goal for our players in this competition here,” he said.

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