Hayden and I will put our friendship down for those three hours: Justin Langer

Pakistan are currently on top of the group 2 points table while England have topped the group one proceedings. However, Australia are slotted at second position and will play semi-finals against Pakistan (if they don’t lose to Scotland) and in the same sequence, Australia coach Justin Langer opened up on this particular game. It is known that Matthew Hayden has been appointed as batting consultant of Pakistan for T20 WC 2021.

Langer and Hayden are definitely good mates from Australia and Langer added how he will keep his friendship aside while locking horns against Pakistan. Australian coach stated that he likes to be professional while being in the tournament and wouldn’t bring friendship in between.

“I know he is in UAE and must be enjoying his time out there but being on the sidelines, we focus on business. We have been texting throughout but have no insights as we keeping business to business. Hayden and I will put our friendship down for three hours during the semi-final game,” said Langer while speaking in a video posted by ESPNcricinfo.

England and Australia qualify for semis from group one

Australia would be playing their semi-final game against Pakistan while England would be locking horns against New Zealand. Talking of the qualification scenarios of Group one, all Australia, South Africa, and England lost one game each in their league stage but Australia and England made it to the next round on the basis of better NRRs. It remains to be seen how Australia would be able to bring up their A-game against high-spirited men in green.

Though England lost its last league game against South Africa, it was not enough from Proteas to get into the top two. On the other hand, Australia’s huge win against Bangladesh allowed them to stay in the top two slots.

“The win was important. The bitter-sweet end for us. We achieved what we wanted to – win the game but just couldn’t win it big enough. At the start of the tournament, that (net run rate) was never a factor for us, we just wanted to win games. It’s always tough to make up for that at the back end, especially against a team like England,” said Temba Bavuma after the last league game.