Australia’s Mitchell Starc insists his side were NOT aiming to throw Scotland game to knock England out of the World Cup despite Josh Hazlewood’s stunning admission

Mitchell Starc says Australia never considered knocking England out of the Twenty20 World Cup after recording a last-ditch win in St Lucia.

With their own progression to the Super Eight stage already assured, Australia were well below their best as they chased down Scotland’s 5-180 with two balls and five wickets to spare.

Travis Head and Marcus Stoinis were the saviors for Australia, hitting half-centuries each and combining for a match-changing 80-run stand.

Tim David and Matt Wade took the match to the death, before Chris Sole dropped David with three balls to spare, leaving Australia unbeaten.

A win in Scotland would have allowed them to qualify for England in Group B, with even Josh Hazlewood admitting last week that this would have been a good result for Australia.

Mitchell Starc insists Australia never had any intention of hosting the match against Scotland

The Aussies knew that a defeat against the Scots would have knocked England out of the World Cup

But Starc said this line was taken out of context as England are now progressing on the basis of a higher net run-rate than Scotland’s.

“A throwaway line has been blown out of all proportion,” Starc said after the win over Scotland.

“You don’t have to mess with Mother Cricket and worry about different results.

‘We are here to win games. It’s international cricket.

‘England are now on the other side of the draw, so for the next three games it doesn’t really matter that much.’

But for long periods of the match, England may have feared they were heading into another cricket match with Australia.

With Pat Cummins rested and Stoinis not bowling, Starc admitted Australia’s fielding was ‘terrible’ as they dropped six catches and risked a first T20 loss to an associated country.

Brandon McMullen hit 60 off 34 balls for the Scots, clubbing six sixes and regularly going inside out over long distances.

Adam Zampa finally got his wicket when he beat the right-hander on the run and had him well caught at short third man by Starc, slowing Scotland’s momentum.

Glenn Maxwell claimed 2-44 and was punished before outsmarting opener George Munsey (35 off 23) at another crucial moment.

Josh Hazlewood’s comments last week suggested Australia could throw the match, but Starc insists his side would never interfere with ‘Mother Cricket’

In reply, Australia struggled to catch fire and were left at 1-36 after six overs and their slowest powerplay of the competition.

When the equation reached the 107 needed from the last 10 overs, England are said to have considered booking their flights home.

But Head (68 off 49 balls) and Stoinis (59 off 29) managed to get their team back into the match.

Stoinis was the first to make an impression,

Needing 89 off 42 balls, he took 18 off one from Safyaan Sharif when he hit him for six and then let the next ball cross the field.

And then, with 60 needed off the last five overs, Head hit Sharif for three consecutive sixes before being caught on the ground a few balls later.

By the time Head was sacked, the damage had been done and any notion of Australia deliberately knocking England out of the tournament had been exposed as a myth.

“I just tried to keep hitting (Head), and then he picked his bowler and turned the game around in that with those three sixes,” Stoinis said.

‘There is no substitute for trust. That is the recipe we all try to hold on to: having confidence for as long as possible.’

Australia will now face India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in their Super Eight group unless Bangladesh are shocked by Nepal on Monday.