It will, however, be very difficult for Norooz Mangal and his team to secure one of the four remaining spots at the event because the two matches it has won in this event so far have been against sides that didn’t make the last eight and so, as a result, they will not carry forward any points to the Super Eight stage.
As such, Afghanistan lies in seventh position, just ahead of Namibia on net run-rate, with four rounds of matches to go. But the words “impossible” or even “unlikely” do not seem to be in the Afghans’ vocabulary as, in the space of less than a year, they have managed to win through from Division 5 of the Pepsi ICC World Cricket League all the way up to the last eight of the top Associate and Affiliate teams in the world.
“This is a great achievement for us,” said Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan.
“We came from Division 5 and now we have left behind us one team that played in the last World Cup (Bermuda) and two sides that were in Division 2 (Denmark and Oman) as well as Uganda which qualified with us from Division 3 so we are delighted with the progress we are making. It’s a great moment.
“Our first target was to get in the top eight. Now we have set our sights on the top six because that will bring ODI status for four years. My team is getting used to this now. We have learned lessons from mistakes we made against the other teams, especially the better sides like Kenya and the Netherlands and we will carry that experience into the Super Eight.
“Qualifying for the World Cup will be very difficult as we will have to win all four games probably but that dream is deep inside me. Anything can happen and we have not given up hope. We don’t know how to give up hope,” he said.
Afghanistan will be joined by defending champion Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Namibia, Netherlands, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates with matches in that stage of the event getting under way on Saturday.
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