Afghans beat the Irish

I'm clambering back onto the bandwagon after the Hameed Hasan-inspired Afghans were inspired by to a famous victory over the previously untroubled Irish. With 5 wickets remaining and 33 runs required at a run a ball, the Irish were clear favourites, but 4 wickets in 9 balls from the Afghan pace bowler - 3 clean bowled - left them spectacularly derailed. (Read Hasan's take on the match here).

It was a must-win game for the Afghans, preventing them from falling adrift at the bottom of what is now a congested table (the Namibians and Scots also won). They are still in contention for World Cup qualification in the top 4 or, more realistically, a top-6 finish that would win them One-Day international status (the ICC High Performance Manager, Richard Done, here explains his blueprint for making the qualifying teams competitive in the 2 years leading to the next World Cup).

For anyone who would like to join me in following the tournament obsessively, the best place is, in fact, the official site, rather than cricinfo. Canada are up next for the Afghans on Monday morning - in the meantime, you can watch a video of the team's fitness programme or read about the documentary they've inspired. Or go out to Hyde Heath for some extra-cover catching practice from Tom.

Afghanistan's opening match

For those of you on tenterhooks as to how the Afghans fared in their first match, the result was a 5-wicket win at a canter, with fine all-round performances from Mohammad Nabi and, in particular, Karim Khan. In the finest village cricket tradition, the latter took off his wicketkeeping gloves to bowl (after a finger injury), only to scythe through the Danish batting line-up. A (slightly) fuller match report can be read here; you can also find the BBC leaping on the Cricket Tragics bandwagon here

Lying in wait for them next (on Thursday morning) are Bermuda and their 20-stone+ star spinner, Dwayne Leverock, fresh from a miserly spell of 10-5-13-1 in the defeat against the UAE (the Dutch were the group's other winners). Though Bermuda also have former Glamorgan batsman, David Hemp, in their ranks, their cricket has been in alarming decline since qualification for the 2007 World Cup and the team has lost their first two matches in South Africa - another eminently winnable game for the Afghans!

From Kabul to Centurion?

It began as a beacon of hope for refugees returning to a war-torn region. When an Afghan XI then thrashed a touring MCC team in Mumbai in 2006, there was excitement at the promise of swashbuckling opening batsman and legspinner, Mohammed Nabi, and fast bowler Hameed Hassan, immediately recruited as MCC Young Cricketers. Though a successful tour of England followed later that year, with the Afghans undefeated in matches against some strong county 2nd XIs, none could have foreseen the national team's whirlwind series of promotions through the divisions of the World Cricket League, with tournaments won in Jersey (Division 5), Tanzania (Division 4) and Argentina (Division 3) in 2008 and January 2009.

They are now in South Africa, one of 12 teams competing for 4 places in the 2011 World Cup - qualification would spark scenes of delight on the streets of Kabul, since cricket is the Afghan national game, having persisted even under the Taliban. Hardened by a month's training in Pakistan under the auspices of the great Javed Miandad, the team start the competition this Wednesday morning, with a must-win game against Denmark, one of its weaker teams. Realistically, they also need to beat at least one of Kenya, Holland, Bermuda and the U.A.E to qualify for the tournament's second phase, where they will face the likes of Ireland, Scotland and Canada, habitual qualifiers for the main tournament. Few would expect them to reach that stage, but then again few expected them to reach this one - find out here how far the Afghans' momentum can carry them.

A fuller preview of the tournament as a whole can be found courtesy of Will Luke at cricinfo, everyone's 2nd favourite cricket website, and the Afghans' progress can also be followed through star man Hameed Hassan's blog. The tournament's official site may also be of use..