Shah exuded confidence that Afghanistan is now ready to replicate that success against India and Pakistan in the Super Four stage. “Our first target was to qualify for the Super Four. We have already qualified. Now we want more,” Shah revealed after his Man-of-the-Match performance against Sri Lanka.

Afghanistan has reasons to feel confident about its chances, having won 12 of their 17 one-day matches this year. The team had self-belief so that it overcame a poor start in the World Cup Qualifiers to win that tournament in March this year, beating the West Indies in the final.

“We are confident of playing the big teams and beating them in the big matches,” Shah said after the Sri Lanka match.

“If you see our team combination, it’s very good. We have good all-rounders and good spinners. We are not here to give tough time to India and Pakistan, we are here to win these matches,” the middle-order batsman added. Shah said the team was confident going into Monday’s game against Sri Lanka.

“We knew that Sri Lanka would be under pressure because they lost the first match (to Bangladesh). So we were confident. We knew before the start of the game that we had a great chance to qualify. We performed well in the match. We are really excited to be in the Super Four,” he said. So was this his best innings in one-day cricket? “Yes, you can give more marks to this innings because it was such a big match in a big tournament,” he said.

“But I have played some other good knocks as well in one-day cricket. I have a century against Zimbabwe. But, of course, you can say that it was one of my best innings because it was important to win and qualify for the Super Four.

“And also it wasn’t really easy to bat because of the weather conditions in the afternoon. “That’s why this innings is very satisfying. I was able to play according to the plan,” he signed off.