NORTH SOUND
\nEngland fast bowler Mark Wood believes Australia will play \u201chard and fair\u201d in their T20 World Cup clash against Scotland in a game which could lead to the defending champions\u2019 elimination.
\nAustralian quick Josh Hazlewood caused a stir when he said \u201cit\u2019s in our best interest\u201d to see bitter rivals England suffer a first round exit.
\nHe even refused to rule out manipulating the system if it helped the Scots make the second round Super Eights rather than England from Group \u2018B\u2019.
\nHowever, Wood insists their Ashes rivals will not deliberately under-perform when they clash on Saturday in a game which follows England\u2019s meeting against Namibia.
\n\u201cI think that\u2019s part of being England and Australia, isn\u2019t it?\u201d said Wood. \u201cI think actually I saw it more as a respect thing if I\u2019m honest that he was saying that England have done well against Australia in the recent past and thinks we\u2019re a big threat and a big team so I have no problem with it.\u201d
\nAustralia have already booked their place in the second round with three wins in three games, including a 36-run victory against England.
\nScotland are in second place after a no-result with England and wins over Namibia and Oman.
\nEngland are two points behind the Scots but with a superior run-rate which will be the tie-breaker if both teams finish level on points.
\n\u201cI\u2019m absolutely confident Australia will play the game the hardest, that\u2019s the Australian way, that they\u2019ll play hard but fair and try and get the win,\u201d said Wood.
\nEarlier, Australian pacer Pat Cummins ruled out the prospect of Australia underperforming against Scotland, saying it would be against the \u201cspirit of cricket.\u201d
\nEngland coach Matt Mott \u2014 an Australian \u2014 said he hoped Hazlewood was joking and Australia\u2019s Test and one-day skipper Cummins assured him that the bowler was.
\n\u201cWhen you go out and play you\u2019re trying your best every time. And if you\u2019re not, it\u2019s probably against the spirit of cricket,\u201d Cummins told reporters in St Lucia. \u201cI don\u2019t think you can (go into a game not trying to win) — ever. You\u2019re playing an international game in the middle of a World Cup.
\n\u201cYou still want to try and have a good game and carry that on into the Super Eights. I\u2019ve never stepped on to the field without the mindset of being aggressive, like the guys have so far.\u201d
\nCummins said he had spoken to Hazlewood and the comments were tongue-in-cheek and \u201cgot taken a bit out of context.\u201d
\n\u201cWe\u2019ll go out there and try to play Scotland, who have had a really good tournament so far, so it\u2019s going to be tough,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something you discuss as one of the quirks of the set-up, but it does it change the way we play? Absolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NORTH SOUND England fast bowler Mark Wood believes Australia will play \u201chard and fair\u201d in their T20 World Cup clash against Scotland in a game which could lead to the defending champions\u2019 elimination. Australian quick Josh Hazlewood caused a stir when he said \u201cit\u2019s in our best interest\u201d to see bitter rivals England suffer a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-413178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n