No complacency: Tait

With a semi-final to secure and a 23-game unbeaten World Cup streak to maintain, Australia have no reason to take it easy against last place Ireland in the Super 8s.

With a semi-final to secure and a 23-game unbeaten World Cup streak to maintain, Australia have no reason to take it easy against last place Ireland in the Super 8s.

“We’re in the Super 8s now, it’s not a warm-up match,” said fast-bowler Shaun Tait. “We’ve got to play in our best form. If we relax in any of these games and then come up against a big side, we might get done then. We’ve just got to concentrate on what we are doing at the moment.”

Defending champions Australia will be out to assert the supremacy that has brought them to the verge of the semi-finals without being seriously stretched in any of their six outings during the tournament.

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Swamping all their opponents in the current tournament, Australia have already extended their unbeaten World Cup streak to 23 matches that stretches back to the 1999 World Cup where a tied semi-final against South Africa was the closest any team came to stopping the Aussies.

Emerging from five successive one-day defeats in the run-up to the World Cup, Australia are again looking awesome.

Another Australian victory is expected on Friday, given Ireland’s limited ability that has left the World Cup debutants from the Emerald Isle as the only ones without a victory in the Super 8s. Despite the huge gap between the two teams, Australia are not taking the game lightly.