MELBOURNE: Australia must put the foot down in pursuit of victory against Afghanistan and not worry about the other external factors which could affect their bid to reach the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals, chief selector George Bailey said.

The reigning champions take on the Afghans in Adelaide on Friday facing elimination from the rain-affected tournament.

They trail New Zealand and England in their group with only two teams advancing to the next stage.

“The first port of call is making sure you set yourself up to win the game and make sure you’re playing well enough to do that,” Bailey told reporters.

“There’s a lot that remains out of your control, I think (we need to go) in flexible, open-minded.

“I think we’ve got a team that’s got talent, that if they have to put the foot down and do something special they’ve got it in them.”

New Zealand, England and Australia are level on five points with one round of group matches remaining, with the hosts in third place due to an inferior run rate.

New Zealand play Ireland on Friday while England take on Sri Lanka on Saturday.

“First and foremost it’s about winning the game,” said Bailey.

“I don’t think you want to get too carried away with anything else other than that at the outset.

“No doubt we’ll be aware of certain permutations. There’s a lot that’s out of our control given the fact that England play Sri Lanka after our game anyway.”

Standings

(Tabulated under played, won, lost, no result, points, net run-rate):

Group 1:

New Zealand 4 2 1 1 5 2.233

England 4 2 1 1 5 0.547

Australia 4 2 1 1 5 -0.304

Sri Lanka 4 2 2 0 4 -0.457

Ireland 4 1 2 1 3 -1.544

Afghanistan 4 0 2 2 2 -0.718

Group 2:

India 4 3 1 0 6 0.730

South Africa 3 2 0 1 5 2.772

Bangladesh 4 2 4 0 4 -1.276

Zimbabwe 4 1 2 1 3 -0.313

Pakistan 3 1 2 0 2 0.765

Netherlands 4 1 3 0 2 -1.233

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2022