The T20 World Cup has been a tournament full of surprises. USA, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have qualified for the Super Eight stage, whereas previous winners Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been knocked out. New Zealand's 10-year-streak of qualifying for ICC knockouts game to an end, whereas England barely managed to scrape through to the next stage.

Speaking of the defending champions, England's T20 World Cup campaign was marred by drama. After their game against Scotland was washed out, they suffered a 36-run defeat to Australia, seriously damaging their chances of qualifying for the Super Eights. Not only did they need to win their remaining games against Oman and Namibia, but England also needed Australia to beat Scotland to stay alive. That is when Josh Hazlewood decided to make things interesting, to say the least.

During a press conference, the Australia pacer said that it would be in Australia's 'best interests' to knock England out, raising speculations as to whether the 2021 WC winners were planning on manipulating their game against Scotland, doing just about enough to eke out a win but also ensure that the defending champions were on their flights back home.

Hazlewood's statements were defended by teammates Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, stating that it was a comment made in jest and one that was blown out of proportion. Glenn Maxwell, however, revealed that Hazlewood's remarks did raise a bit of an alarm bell in the English dressing room, and he ended up getting a couple of texts from their Ashes rivals.

"Yeah, just a couple of texts here and there. It was actually quite funny. There was a lot of chat out in the ground like 'Are we doing this? Are we seriously going to let England back in?' It was a pretty interesting game. We just didn't bat well at the start. Just felt that out rhythm wasn't all out. When I got out, it was an interesting stage. Head's back was sort of clearing up a little bit. It could have gone either way but the Stoinis came out and absolutely pumped it. That sort of put the game beyond doubt," Maxwell said on ESPN's 'Around the Wicket' podcast.

'There was complete chaos and panic in England's team hotel'

The Australia vs Scotland ended up as a humdinger with the Aussies escaping a scare and winning the match by five wickets to two balls to spare. England were still not out of the sea as rain threat loomed large in their game against Namibia. Fortunately, the skies cleared and Jos Buttler's men emerged winners in the rain-truncated game. But having said that, with the Australia team enduring nervy moments against Scotland during the finish, Maxwell revealed that the English players were all over the place.

"There was almost this interesting part where they dropped Tim David's catch when there was 3 required off 3. When it gets down to the last 2-3 balls, who knows what's going to happen? Luckily enough, we got over the line and luckily enough, they got through. But I heard it was absolutely 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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