Ireland’s victory over England in Melbourne on Wednesday has certainly gone on to make matters quite interesting in Group 1. Alongside the Irishmen, Sri Lanka, England and Australia too are on two points apiece with toppers New Zealand being just a point ahead of the four teams.

Now, if Ireland can continue their good work against Afghanistan, their next opponents, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Friday, they will be moving up to the second position in the group. That would for sure add to the pressure on the other teams.

Besides, the Irishmen also have better knowledge of the MCG conditions compared to the Afghans, whose contest versus New Zealand was a washout.

The Andy Balbirnie-led side, though, prefers to stay cautious before taking on “fighters” Afghanistan.

“Look, we take it one game at a time,” head coach Gary Wilson said on Thursday.

“If you had looked at the first few games, we would have wanted to get off to a better start than we did against Sri Lanka. But Ireland against England is always a great encounter, and I think we showed our worth yesterday (Wednesday).

“To be honest, we’re not looking too far ahead of the game tomorrow (Friday). And let’s see what happens and where we sit after that game,” Wilson added.

Conditions at the MCG are unlikely to be having much assistance for spinners. That’s something Afghanistan need to be careful about, especially as the strength of their bowling lies in their spin attack.

“We know Rashid (Khan) and Mujeeb (ur Rahman) very well, having played a lot against them over the last number of years. Yeah, they’ll pose a different threat to what England posed. However, we do have our plans against them,” Wilson pointed out.

“The pitch out there didn’t take a huge amount of spin yesterday (Wednesday). And we hope that the ground will suit our style of play.”

Afghanistan, on the other hand, continue to bank on their spinners. “We are fighters and that’s our nature. Our spinners can bowl on any kind of pitches,” assistant coach Raees Ahmadzai said.