WHILE they swelter in the heat of Florida, the Ireland squad will have one eye on the weather 1300 miles up the east coast today, knowing that rain in New York could spell the end of their spluttering T20 World Cup campaign.

India and the USA are joint top of Group A with two wins each and if their match on Long Island is abandoned for any reason, both sides will qualify for the Super Eight, and Ireland and Pakistan will be eliminated, along with Canada.

Ideally, India will hammer the hosts by a wide margin to give the Boys in Green a better chance of overhauling the USA’s nett run-rate - or certainly greatly narrowing the gap - when the two teams meet in Lauderhill on Friday.

A big victory for Ireland in that game would leave a winner-takes-all clash on Sunday against Pakistan, who got their first points on the board yesterday,  beating Canada by seven wickets in New York.

“When you lose your first two games it doesn’t really matter what the other teams are doing in the group because you know you have to win those remaining two games convincingly to have a chance to get through,” all-rounder Curtis Campher said.

“We’re pretty up for it. We’re used to fighting uphill battles so hopefully we can show what we’re made of because in the first two games we haven’t done that.

“Past experiences do help you and it’s nice to draw back on those and know that we can do it, but past experiences don’t play the game for you, and we have to execute on the day.”