Ireland's World Cup preparations have, once again, been hampered by the inclement weather in Australia, in what is being reported as the wettest year in Sydney since the 1850s.
Currently based in the New South Wales state capital ahead of the 17 October start of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, an Ireland selection defeated Randwick Petersham XI - a club with strong Irish connections - in a warm-up game on Tuesday.
However, subsequent games against an SCG XI on Wednesday and a NSW XI on Friday were both abandoned due to the local conditions - the squad did get to train on grass at the Coogee Oval, however.
Ireland will next travel to Melbourne to play two official T20 World Cup warm-up matches against Namibia and Sri Lanka, before moving to Hobart for the first round of the tournament proper, where they will meet Zimbabwe (17 October), Scotland (19 Oct) and the West Indies (21 Oct).
"It's been a bit disappointing not to get as much cricket in as we would have liked," said Ireland bowler Barry McCarthy
"Credit to the groundsmen, although the weather hasn't played ball, it was great to get some overs in and get a hit on the grass, which has been really valuable.
McCarthy said that he will have to adjust his bowling technique a touch to adapt to the pitches Down Under, compared to home, with more bounce expected, while he feels that the greener wickets of Tasmania could prove a slight advantage when facing teams like the West Indies.
"It will probably be more familair conditions compared to the West Indies and Zimbabwe, however, it will still be about who can execute the best and whose skillsets are the best on the day.
"We've done a lot of hard work, and we'll continue that in Melbourne and we'll be ready to go in Hobart."
Looking ahead to the World Cup, captain Andrew Balbirnie says that confidence is high coming into the start of the tournament, where Ireland are looking to secure a top-two finish in their four-team group to progress to the second phase with the eight seeded nations.
"I think we have to be confident, we've played pretty good cricket all summer in both formats," said Balbirnie, speaking on the latest episode of Green Ball Podcast.
"We've put a lot of focus on our performances, and while results have not gone our way when you look at the breakdown of the summer. But our performances have been very good and in the long run if your performances are at a certain level, the results will look after themselves.
"So we want to try to get that message across to the players that there is no pressure on the results, but there is pressure on how we perform.
"And the guys have reacted well to that and it has given them a free spirit to go out and play because we want to play a brand of cricket that excites people and hopefully we can do that in Hobart.
"But if we play good cricket and lose three games, that is not successful, so there has to be a balance of playing good cricket and getting results, and maybe sometimes to win ugly.
"We have to get through that group and if we don't do that it will be deemed unsuccessful, however, the message won't change. Go out there and put in a performance to be proud of. We know as a group, if we put in three good performances, we'll be happy with that."
