AUS vs SCO: Mitchell Marsh faces ban threat as Josh Hazlewood says Australia could manipulate Scotland game to dump England out of T20 WC

Australia captain Mitchell Marsh could face a ban if his team tries to manipulate the result against Scotland in order to dump England out of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

Australia have already qualified from Group B while England and Scotland are in contention for the remaining one Super 8s spot. Scotland are in a better position than England to make it to the next round. While they have five points from three games, England have one from two.

Even if England go on to win their remaining two games, they can finish with a maximum of five points. If Scotland manage to beat Australia, they will be qualifying for the next stage regardless of what happens with England's games. However, if both teams finish on five points, their fate will be decided by net run rate.

As of now, Scotland have a brilliant net run rate of +2.164 while England's net run rate is -1.800. Given the current situation, England are relying on their biggest rivals - Australia - to do them a favor. Australia have nothing to gain from the game against Scotland and their fast-bowler Josh Hazlewood has made it clear that his team would not waste the chance of dumping England out of the tournament.

"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 told the media.

"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," he added.

Mitchell Marsh faces ban threat:

If Australia indeed try to manipulate the result in their last group game, their captain Mitchell Marsh could be banned for up to two of their three Super Eight fixtures.

The Australia allrounder could be charged under Article 2.11 of the ICC's code of conduct, which aims 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."

The law also states that the captain could be punished for "the inappropriate manipulation of a net run rate". The punishment for the offense ranges from a 50% match fee fine to four demerit points and two suspension points.