Josh Hazlewood has confessed it would be in Australia’s “best interest” to manipulate the result of this weekend’s T20 World Cup match against Scotland to knock England out of the tournament.

England, who suffered a 36-run loss to Australia last week, needs to defeat Oman and Namibia and finish the group stage with a higher net run rate than Scotland to qualify for the Super Eights and avoid elimination.

The reigning champions are therefore relying on their two biggest rivals, Australia and Scotland, for any chance of defending the title they won in 2022.

Australia has an opportunity to exploit a flaw in the T20 World Cup point system, defeating Scotland by a narrow margin to ensure their opponent’s net run rate remains above England.

Each nation’s net run rate does not carry through the Super Eight stage of the tournament, meaning there is no incentive for Australia to push for a heavy victory over Scotland.

“If you got through undefeated and have a good net run rate, it doesn’t count for much,” Hazlewood told reporters during Wednesday’s post-match press conference in Antigua.

“It’s a strange one.”

England’s final group-stage game against Namibia finishes around four hours before Australia clashes with Scotland, meaning Mitchell Marsh’s men will have time to calculate the exact margin of victory required for England to be knocked out.

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Hazlewood conceded that Australia’s chances of winning the T20 World Cup would improve if England was eliminated during the group stage.

“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,” Hazlewood continued.

“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.

“Whether we have discussions or not, or we just try and play again the way we played tonight, that’ll be up to people, not me.”

Meanwhile, England and Pakistan will also be praying the rain holds off to keep their T20 World Cup campaigns alive.

Both nations, the finalists from the previous edition of the tournament, got their campaigns off to slow starts, with Pakistan suffering a shock loss to the United States of America in Dallas.

England and Pakistan need to win all of their remaining group-stage matches for any chance of qualifying for the Super Eights, but the forecasts in Florida and Antigua are less than promising, with a washout all that’s needed to knock them out of the tournament.

Predictably, Hazlewood’s comments were well received in England.

Cricinfo’s Andrew McGlashan suggested Australian skipper Mitchell Marsh could be suspended should they manipulate the result.

“He could be charged under Article 2.11 of the ICC’s code of conduct, which is designed to prevent the manipulation of games for ‘inappropriate strategic or tactical reasons … such as when a team deliberately loses a pool match in an ICC Event in order to affect the standings of other teams in that ICC Event’,” McGlashan wrote.

“The code of conduct clarifies it could also apply to ‘the inappropriate manipulation of a net run rate’ and the captain would be held responsible, and charged with a Level Two offence.

“Depending on the severity of the offence, this could carry a minimum sanction of a 50 per cent match fee fine, with a maximum of four demerit points and two suspension points – which would rule Marsh out of Australia’s first two Super Eight matches.”

The same rule was spelled out on the Wisden website in an article that began “Sorry Australia…”

England coach Matthew Mott, an Australian, said he hoped Hazelwood’s comments were in jest.

“Having grown up in Australia and the will to win every game, I am sure they will come to the fore,” Australian Mott told BBC Sport.“I am very much hoping it was an off-hand remark by a really good bloke who is having fun.”

The Daily Mail’s Lawrence Booth, meanwhile, labelled the situation a “disgrace” and said it only served to expose a problem with the tournament schedule.

“It is a question of ethics, perhaps, rather than corruption, but it is a serious issue nonetheless. By drawing attention to a set of circumstances the Australians would have been better off leaving unaddressed, Hazlewood has simply exposed the amateurishness of the schedule,” he wrote.

“Was he joking as he outlined a scenario that could bring the game into disrepute? If so, he hid it well.

“Should Australia slow down in pursuit of a target on Saturday, or bring on their part-time bowlers if Scotland are struggling in a chase of their own, ICC match referee Jeff Crowe will face a big call.

GROUP A

India, United States of America, Pakistan, Canada, Ireland

The winner of Thursday morning’s clash between India and the United States of America will automatically qualify for the Super Eights, while there’s an intriguing battle for the other slot.

It is still mathematically possible for any nation in Group A to qualify, with host nation the USA needing just one win from their remaining matches against India or Canada.

But for Pakistan, the situation is slightly more complicated — Babar Azam’s men need to defeat Ireland and boost their net run rate above the USA, but even then they’re relying on other results and weather.

Meanwhile, it would take a miracle for either Canada or Ireland to finish in the top two.

Ladder

1. India — 4 points (+1.455)

2. USA — 4 points (+0.626)

3. Pakistan — 2 points (+0.191)

4. Canada — 2 points (-0.493)

5. Ireland — 0 points (-1.712)

Remaining matches