Glenn Maxwell admitted to receiving texts from English players following Josh Hazlewood‘s intriguing comment about potentially knocking England out of the T20 World Cup. The tournament has seen surprising outcomes, with the USA, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh advancing to the Super Eight stage, while past winners Pakistan and Sri Lanka were eliminated early.
England’s campaign was filled with drama. After a washout against Scotland and a 36-run defeat to Australia, their qualification hopes hinged on winning against Oman and Namibia, and Australia defeating Scotland. Hazlewood’s comment during a press conference about it being in Australia’s “best interests” to knock England out added to the speculation about potential game manipulation.
Despite his teammates defending Hazlewood’s comment as a joke, Maxwell revealed it caused some alarm among English players, leading to a flurry of messages. “There was a lot of chat like ‘Are we doing this? Are we seriously going to let England back in?’ It was a pretty interesting game,” Maxwell said on ESPN’s ‘Around the Wicket’ podcast.
The Australia vs Scotland match was a nail-biter, with Australia narrowly winning by five wickets with two balls to spare. England’s anxiety continued with their rain-threatened game against Namibia, but they eventually secured a win in the rain-shortened match. Maxwell recounted the chaos in the English team hotel, where players were booking and canceling flights in a state of panic. “It was absolute chaos. They were in the hotel and there was a fair bit of panic. Guys booking flights and cancelling etc. Would have been fun being a fly on the wall watching that,” he added.
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