It was a great moment for Afghanistan in the World Cup

Rashid Khan was standing next to the bowler with his arms outstretched and the Afghan players surrounded him. The inevitability of what the courageous Asian team had just achieved hung around in the cool night air of Delhi for a long time.

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Over the past eight days, Delhi's notoriously unbalanced venue has defined and redefined the boundaries of what was possible with bat in hand.

If anything could have gone in Afghanistan's favour, it was an early stroke of luck. Jonny Bairstow grunted and shook his head during the long, reluctant walk to the bench in the second game when Fazalhaq Faruqi failed to bring down the defender after a minor LBW call in the review.

It was the sort of late evening where Shahidi kept himself busy between overs, constantly combining with Mohammad Nabi to set fielding traps and cut out opportunities for England's second-wicket pair to quickly counter-attack.

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