England coach Matthew Mott has played down fears Australia will manipulate their final group match against Scotland on Saturday to knock the defending champions out of the T20 World Cup.

It comes after Josh Hazlewood suggested the Aussies could do just that in a match that is played after England’s final Group B encounter with Namibia, stating it would be in his team’s “interests” to help knock Jos Buttler’s men out.

Such talk risks inflaming tensions between the Ashes rivals, with last summer’s Lord’s controversy when Alex Carey stumped Jonny Bairstow and the 2018 ball-tampering scandal in South Africa still fresh in the minds of England fans.

Mott knows his team will be out if Scotland beat Australia or they avoid a big enough defeat in that game to qualify for the Super Eights on net run rate.

The Australian, who coached Hazlewood during his time at New South Wales, said: “I’m going to be totally honest I haven’t heard the comments in context. I was told about them this morning. Knowing Josh has got a pretty dry sense of humour, I am hoping it was very much tongue in cheek.

“I actually don’t think it is ever going to play out. Having grown up in Australia and the will to win every game, I am sure they will come to the fore. I am very much hoping it was an off-hand remark by a really good bloke who is having fun.”

The Bairstow stumping during last summer’s second Ashes Test had an outraged Lord’s crowd singing in unison: “Same old Aussies, always cheating.”

Now having already qualified for the Super Eights after winning their first three games, Australia can ease off against Scotland to help knock Buttler’s men out of the tournament, with the maximum punishment available to the International Cricket Council a two-match ban for Aussie captain Mitchell Marsh and a fine of 100 per cent of his match fee if found guilty of manipulating a match.

This would not fall under the ICC’s anti-corruption code, rather it would be a breach of their code of conduct.

England’s hopes of progressing to the Super Eights are hanging by a thread after a washout against Scotland and a 36-run defeat by Australia in Barbados last week.

It means they must win their final two group matches against Oman today and Namibia on Saturday by big margins to pip the Scots on net run rate, assuming they lose to Australia.

Given Australia and Scotland play in St Lucia after England’s final match, it means both teams will know exactly what’s required to help wreck England’s chances, something Hazlewood was well aware of following his team’s win against Namibia in Antigua on Tuesday evening.

“We can ease off a little bit over the next few days,” he said.

“In this tournament you potentially come up against England at some stage again and as you said 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.

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“But yeah, 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. Yeah, that’ll be up to people, not me.”

Asked how they might scupper England, Hazlewood added: “Not too sure really, whether you get close and you just knock it around and drag it out.

“There’s a few options there, but as you said, 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.”

The problem for England is that it would be very hard for the ICC to prove Australia have eased off against Scotland. i understands the ICC are not concerned Marsh’s team will manipulate the result.

But there is a precedent, with Australia captain Steve Waugh conducting a deliberate go slow to manipulate net run rate during a match against the West Indies during the 1999 World Cup in England to ensure New Zealand did not qualify for the next stage of the tournament.

England have to win – and ignore the Aussies

England know victory against Oman on Thursday is non-negotiable. They also have to produce a statement performance to resuscitate their faltering T20 World Cup campaign if they are to extend their interest in this tournament beyond the weekend.

Buttler and his players can make talk of an Aussie stitch-up moot if they hammer both of the weakest two teams in Group B over the next three days.

Oman are first. Scotland showed the gulf nation’s limitations on Sunday, cantering to a seven wicket win as they cruised to a target of 153 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

That boosted the Scots’ net run rate to a level where England know even winning both of their final games might not be enough.

They really need to get ahead of Scotland’s run rate before that Group B finale in St Lucia the Australians are threatening to manipulate. If that’s the case any margin of defeat for the Scots would see Buttler’s men through.

England have been here before, sneaking through to the semi-finals of the last T20 World Cup in Australia two years ago on net run rate after losing their second match of the tournament to Ireland.

Once they got into the last four, with wins against New Zealand and Sri Lanka confirming their place, they hammered India in the semi-finals and went on to win the tournament.

The hope is they can engineer a similar escape act now, but the format of this tournament in the USA and Caribbean leaves them vulnerable.

It’s not just that Scotland and Australia will know exactly what they will have to do to stitch up England because their match is the last one in the group. It’s the fact there is nothing for already-qualified Australia to gain by winning and topping Group B because their Super Eight group is already pre-ordained regardless of where they finish and no points are carried through to the next stage.

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Unlike major football tournaments, cricket does not play the final group matches concurrently. Maybe if the Aussies blatantly conspire to oust Buttler’s men from this one, the International Cricket Council will be forced to think again.

Despite all this, England just need to win today, with Mott admitting: “That’s all we can do, regardless of any outside noise, qualification, run-rates. We’ve got to win this game.

“If we get in a dominant position and can push hard we will but if we have to scrap and fight to get the two points we will as well.

“Hopefully there’s still a lot of cricket left for us and the challenge ahead is something we’re excited by. We’re not daunted by it, we’re excited. That’s genuine.”

England’s hopes of smashing a big total if they bat first have been enhanced by news this match will be played on a fresh pitch at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

They look unlikely to make many changes but if training yesterday was anything to go by, it looks like Reece Topley will be picked in place of Mark Wood.

The left-armer was unlucky to miss out on the first two matches against Scotland and Australia, the results of which have left England in this situation. Bringing in a bowler who can swing the ball early on now is the smart call.