By Matt Hardy
Defending T20 Cricket World Cup champions England breathed a huge sigh of relief over the weekend after Australia beat Scotland to hand Jos Buttler’s men a place in the Super Eight.
Having drawn against Scotland, lost to Australia and beaten Oman; England needed a bumper result over Namibia to overtake Scotland in their World Cup group and then hope Australia beat their home nations neighbours in order to sneak through to the last eight.
Australia won by five wickets and ensured England made it through at the expense of Scotland.
In the Super Eight – a part of the T20 Cricket World Cup where the top two teams from each of the four groups are split into pools of four – England will take on South Africa and both hosts the West Indies and United States.
“It’s great learning for us, great experience for the guys. We’re disappointed because we were in a position where we could win,” Scotland captain Richie Berrington said.
Said Australia captain Mitchell Marsh: “The World Cup starts again now. We’ve got a lot of trust in our group that we can keep winning games of cricket.
“T20 is a hard format, you can be slightly off and lose to anyone – as we almost saw.”
India and Australia have been bundled together in the other Super Eight group with Afghanistan.
England plays the West Indies on Thursday in Saint Lucia.
England fixtures
- West Indies, 19/6/24, Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, Saint Lucia
- South Africa, 21/6/24, Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, Saint Lucia
- United States. 23/6/24, Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua and Barbuda
