It was a joke: Pat Cummins defends Josh Hazelwood’s NRR comment

Gros Islet (St Lucia), June 14

Australia’s Pat Cummins said they never considered going easy on Scotland in their final group match to eliminate England from the T20 World Cup and that comments by Josh Hazlewood suggesting they may bottle up the run-rate were made in jest.

Australia have already claimed one of Group B’s two slots in the Super Eight stage, while Scotland looked primed to join them courtesy of a superior net run-rate.

That was until Thursday, when England revived their title defence in spectacular fashion with win over Oman.

England are expected to beat Namibia in their final game and draw level on points with Scotland.

Hazlewood had said on Tuesday that Australia would be happy to eliminate England in the group phase to avoid meeting them later in the tournament.

“I was speaking to Joshy, who had a bit of a joke about it the other day, and think it got taken a little bit out of context,” Cummins said of Hazlewood’s comments.

“We’ll go there and just try and play Scotland, who have had a really good tournament so far and will be tough. It’s (net run-rate) something you kind of discuss as one of the quirks of the set-up but in terms of does it change the way we play? Absolutely not. I’ve never stepped into the field without the mindset of trying to take the game on and be aggressive, like the guys have so far,” he added. — Reuters

First-timers USA knock out Pakistan

Lauderhill: Partly made up of men moonlighting as cricketers when not doing their primary jobs, the USA team cleared the group stage of the T20 World Cup in its very first attempt after its match against Ireland was washed out here today, knocking out former champions Pakistan from the tournament. USA ended their group engagements with five points from four games. Pakistan, even if they win their last match against Ireland, can maximum reach four points. USA thus joined India in the Super Eight stage.