After the rain threat, England recorded a comfortable 41-run win by DLS method against Namibia to keep themselves alive in the Super 8 stage as well. However, England players backed Australia. A win against Scotland would mean Australia and England will reach to the Super 8 stage. But England players would not be happy with the way Australian fielders played against Scotland as they dropped a record-breaking six catches which allowed them to set a target of 181 as well.
However, with this, Australia managed to create a T20 World Cup record for most catches dropped by a team in a single game as well. The previous record belonged to Pakistan where they dropped five catches each against England in the 2009 and 2010 editions as well. In Mitchell Starc’s second over, both Scotland openers got lives. First, captain Mitchell Marsh could not hold on despite jumping to his left and getting a hand on the ball as well. George Munsey was batting for just two runs only. In the same over, Travis Head dropped a half chance while diving to his right when Brandon McMullen was batting on 17 as well.
McMullen later scored his half-century from just 26 balls. In the ninth over, Glenn Maxwell managed to remove Munsey and break the opening partnership. He also scored 35 runs from 23 balls. In Maxwell’s next over, captain Richie Berrington’s catch was dropped by Marsh. He had scored only two runs before getting dropped as well.
#Australia clearly letting #Scotland win here to knock out #England
Won the toss but fielded first 🤔
Bowling spin in the power play 🤔
Getting pumped for 6’s 🤔
Dropped catches🤔The fix is definitely in. They are even laughing when the ball gets thumped#AUSvSCO… pic.twitter.com/48tmyFuNTD
— Sandeep Kumar Yadav (@Sandy92_SKY) June 16, 2024
Adam Zampa also dropped Matthew Cross who went for the pull shot against Starc and Zampa who was at fine leg and attempted a catch but failed. In the 15th over, Maxwell was brought back into the attack and Berrington played a cut shot towards extra cover but Marsh dropped another catch. On the next ball, Cross attempted a sweep shot but Matthew Wade dropped the catch as well.
https://twitter.com/Kourageous7/status/1802161720544071722
However, earlier, Josh Hazlewood said that knocking defending champions England out of the tournament would be in their best interest.
“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 said in a press conference. “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’s.”
