[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

That's the performance which really confirms Afghanistan's arrival as a force to be reckoned with. The win against England, though well deserved, could easily have been written off as a minnow side scraping past a badly wounded giant, but there's no mistaking the quality of today's effort when their bowlers made the most of a Chennai bunsen, then the top four paced the chase to perfection, sussing out the Pakistan attack and tackling them masterfully. The intelligence and maturity had Jonathan Trott's fingerprints all over it (taking nothing away from the batsmen themselves; Gurbaz and Zadran look a quality opening partnership, and it's amazing to think they might have 15-20 cricketing years ahead of them yet).

The full run-in for Afghanistan is Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Australia, South Africa: two beatable teams, a third who aren't what they used to be and a fourth who look strong but have also slipped up once this tournament. If they're up to 8 points by next Friday night then we're in for a cracking final week.