Ahead of Australia's T20 World Cup game against Scotland, Australia captain Mitchell Marsh got some interesting suggestion. Defending T20 World Cup champions England find themselves in a precarious spot after a washed out game and a heavy defeat against Australia, who have qualified for the Super Eights. Former Australia Test captain Tim Paine wants Mitchell Marsh and Co. to "manipulate" their final group game against Scotland to ensure that England are knocked out of the T20 World Cup. "Absolutely they should (manipulate the result) and I'm not even joking. I've spoken to people about this in the last few days. I'm dead serious," Paine said on Sen Radio.
As things stand in Group B, England are fourth with just a point and -1.800 Net Run Rate. They have two more games left. Even if they win both their games they can't overtake Scotland, who are second with five points and a healthy 2.164 NRR.
In order to progress to the Super Eights, Jos Buttler and Co. not only have to win both their remaining games by heavy margins but also hope familiar foes and table leaders Australia hand Scotland a huge defeat to dent the Scots' NRR.
Paine clarified that he doesn't want Australia to lose the match but rather make it close enough for England to be eliminated.
"I'm not sure what the net run rate looks like, you don't have to lose the game, I think they can just let Scotland get close enough. Again, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, Scotland could have a day out. But say Scotland batted first and got to 140 and we chased it off 19.5 overs to make sure they don't suffer a big net run rate loss.
"I think England have to win both of their games by about 50 runs to even get up towards Scotland's net run rate. So, it's certainly plausible that you can win the game (but still ensure England don't progress)," he added.
Even Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood suggested the same thing. "In this tournament you potentially come up against England at some stage again. 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," he said.
However, if Marsh does so, he may face an ICC ban, according to a report in ESPN Cricinfo. In fact, Marsh will then run the risk of getting banned for up to two of their three Super Eight fixtures. In case, manipulation happens, Marsh may be charged under Article 2.11 of the ICC's code of conduct, which is for prevention of 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."