England Break Silence After Australia Get 'Manipulation' Suggestion To Knock Out Jos Buttler And Co. From T20 WC

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

Australia have already qualified for the Super Eight and if Scotland beats them on Sunday, the Scots could also proceed to the Super Eights along with the 2021 champions.

Speaking about playing to eliminate England, Hazlewood in the pre-match press conference had said that eliminating England would be in the best interest of everyone.

"In this tournament, you potentially come up against England at some stage again and they are probably one of the top few teams on their day and we have 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 (that of) everyone else," Hazlewood had said, according to ESPNcricinfo.

Mott downplayed Hazlewood's remarks.

"To be honest, I was informed of that this morning. Look to me, that is things out of our control and I think I know Josh pretty well and I know his integrity. I do not think that is a thing. He has got a very good sense of humour and hopefully, that is what he was doing," Mott said at the pre-match press conference.

Mott said irrespective of Josh's remarks or any other outside noise about qualification, run rates etc, the team is focused on