The Irish cricket team must have hummed Melbourne band Crowded House's famous ditty 'Take the Weather With You' at some point on this World Cup journey.
Not for the first time during this trip to Australia, Andrew Balbirnie's side have seen a match abandoned due to rain, but this time it was their eminently winnable Super 12 showdown with Afghanistan, and not a warm-up game, which fell foul of the elements.
Both sides were awarded one point after officials made the decision to abandon the game in the face of persistent rain, with the Australia v England game also falling foul of the elements at the MCG.
Both sides will have targeted this game as a real chance to take two points in a group filled with cricketing giants. An added disappointment for Afghanistan is that this is their second game at the iconic MCG in the home city of Crowded House that has been abandoned due to rain.
The scheduled start time of 3pm local (5am Irish time) was pushed back because of showers, which ultimately refused to relent and an abandonment was declared 95 minutes later.
There was still an hour and 10 minutes before the scheduled cut-off but the recognition it would take at least an hour for the ground to dry meant hands were shaken early.
Balbirnie's side, who sit top of the group alongside New Zealand on three points courtesy of their shock win over England on Wednesday, now travel north to sunny Brisbane for a clash with reigning champions and hosts Australia on Monday at the Gabba.
In their final game they travel to Adelaide to face New Zealand on Friday and at least one win from those games will be required to have any hope of achieving a historic semi-final berth.
Ireland have never beaten Australia or New Zealand in any format but Balbirnie pointed out that their upset five-run win under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method over England has boosted their confidence as they strive to reach the semi-final.
"We certainly believe we can," Balbirnie said. "Our result on Wednesday backs that belief. We didn't play our best cricket and we still managed to beat a team as good as England so that was positive.
"I wouldn't want to be part of a group that didn't think that (Ireland could reach the semis), that would certainly be a bad environment to be a part of.
"The world champions in their own backward is something pretty special. They'll be expected to beat us, no doubt. That's kind of a nice way to go into the game, you can play with a bit more freedom.
"We certainly have that belief in our group that we can beat them, we know we'll have to be very good on the day. I know the group are pretty excited about that challenge."
However, Balbirnie rejected the suggestion Ireland go into the Australia and New Zealand fixtures with nothing to lose.
"The pressure we have at this stage is if we lose badly, a lot of people will say we don't deserve to be here and that's a different kind of pressure," Balbirnie added.
"We don't like using the term free hit because we want to go out and play, even if it's the first or second round, we want to go out and play, we want to play a certain way.
"We have as much to lose in this tournament. I can understand why people say that but, from our point of view, we feel on a level playing field when we take the field and we have to perform that way too."
