It was the final over of the match, the final over of Afghanistan’s tournament. The unbeaten West Indies needed ten runs to win and they had four wickets remaining. Captain Asghar Stanikzai threw the ball to Mohammad Nabi to bowl his little off-tweakers. Six balls later the Afghanis were celebrating a famous victory.

After only battling though to 123/7 off their 20 overs, it hardly looked a likely feat. In fact they’d only gotten that many thanks to a fine innings from Najibullah Zadran, scoring 48* to anchor them through following Samuel Badree’s devastating spell of 3/14, which left Afghanistan at one point slumping at 56/5 after 11.5 overs. Johnson Charles plugged a couple quick sixes to get the Windies off to a good start but Afghanistan were able to pick up regular wickets throughout. 17/1, 33/2, 38/3, 79/4, 89/5… there’s the injury-enforced retirement in there of Andre Fletcher too, nursing a hamstring as he limped off. Hamid Hassan was ordered from from the bowling crease after two full balls above the waist but this one was all about the spin as Amir Hamza somehow leaked just 9 runs (with a wicket) from his allotment of overs. Against England he’d had an over taken for 25 runs. Rashid Khan picked up a couple wickets too before Nabi came in for that final over.

First ball… round the wicket and full on outside leg. Carlos Brathwaite goes for a big slog sweep and it misses everything. No run.

Second ball… similar delivery but a little wider and as the batsman opens up and steps forward to thump it over midwicket, it thuds off his front pad for no run.

Third ball… ten from four needed. This one is full, a full toss. Up around the knees and Brathwaite wallops it high towards the leg side boundary. Too high. Not far enough. Najibullah Zadran goes sprinting across the outfield, stumbling as he stretches for that plummeting ball and he takes it. He takes it.

He’d leave the field injured having fallen hard on his hip but after his defiant innings gave them a chance, Najib then took the catch that effectively won the game. Fletcher would drag his sore leg out to the middle for the last three balls but they’d manage only three singles and Afghanistan won by six runs. The West Indies still advance to the semis to face India but the middle-eastern side claim their first ever victory at this stage of the World T20 and their first ever win in any format against a test nation not named Bangladesh or Zimbabwe.

And man did they celebrate. Forget about the Dab, forget about all of those other celebration dances. In 2016 it’s all about Mohammad Shahzad and the ‘Champion’ dance.

To be fair, Shahzad hardly invented the Champion Dance. It’s a thoroughly West Indian thing and you can trace it back to its origins in Dwayne “DJ” Bravo’s ‘Champion’ single from a few months back. Yeah, he put out a single, no kidding. Is it a good song? Not really. Is it an irrepressible bit of fun? Hell yes it is.

In fact you can trace Shahzad’s interpretation all the way back to three days earlier when Dwayne Bravo taught it to him in a magnificent moment captured for historical glory on his Instagram. So to see him and his buddies rocking the Champion against the Windies, and then Shahzad and Chris Gayle having a go after the game... what a vision. See if you can spot Gayle in the cover pic up the top. 

That’s what we wanna see at the World T20. Nobody’s confusing this for the World Cup or the Ashes or whatever else. It’s not even the Champions Trophy. This is the World T20, it’s highly competitive with the best players in the world on show, but it’s also a celebration of cricket. I mean, that’s why T20 exists in the first place. Popularism. It came about as a nutshell version of cricket meant to have more widespread appeal, expanding the game’s reach and relevance, which is why it’s both a wonderful and a bittersweet thing to see Afghanistan breaking new ground at the World T20. Their development has been the perfect example of the benefits of cricketing expansion and yet since the 2014 tournament participants have been cut to only ten teams, meaning fewer minnows exposed to the sport at its best. There was a preliminary stage, sure, from which Afghanistan and Bangladesh qualified. But what about Zimbabwe and Ireland and Hong Kong and Scotland? You’re not closing the gap in standards between the test teams and the rest by segregating them.

A generation ago Afghanistan cricket didn’t exist. The Afghanistan Cricket Board was formed in 1995 and they were only accepted into the ICC as an affiliate nation in 2001. Every single one of these players was born prior to official international cricket involving Afghanistan (although 17 year old Rashid Khan comes close).

For those teams without test status, there’s the ICC World Cricket League. It’s a five tier series (now expanded to eight tiers) of one-dayer tournaments that count for World Cup qualification but also for the general growth of the game. The first cycle of competitions ran from 2007 to 2009, with 2010 World Cup places on the line. Afghanistan began in 2008 by entering in the fifth tier of the WCL. They’d play the likes of Singapore, Botswana, Jersey and Japan and included in their squad were familiar names such as Asghar Stanikzai, Mohammad Nabi, Hamid Hassan, Noor Ali, Shapoor Zadran and Samiullah Shenwari. Hassan took 4/29 in the final as Afghanistan defeated Jersey and earned promotion to Division Four. From there they charged undefeated into Division Three, with wins over Hong Kong (twice, including the final), Italy, Tanzania, Jersey and Fiji.

The 2009 Div 3 tourney was held in Argentina. Afghanistan were beaten by 14 runs by Uganda in their first game but rallied to close wins over Hong Kong and Argentina before comfortably beating Papua New Guinea and the Cayman Islands. Rain caused the rescheduling of the last round of group games and so there was no time for playoffs – meaning Afghanistan claimed the trophy on net run-rate ahead of Uganda. Both of those teams were rewarded with entry into the 2009 World Cup qualifying tournament. Afghanistan beat Denmark and Bermuda to start strong but fell to Kenya, Netherlands and UAE. It was enough to get them into the next stage of qualifying. Victories against Ireland, Scotland and Namibia gave them a shot but a loss in their second Super Eights match against Canada ultimately cost them a spot, finishing sixth in the standings. Nonetheless, that was enough to earn ODI status for the next four years. An incredible feat less than a decade after being recognised as an affiliate member of World Cricket.

The rise kept on. Five wins from six qualifiers would give Afghanistan a place in the 2010 World T20 in the West Indies. There they were well-beaten by South Africa and India but they’d now tasted cricket against the very best. They’d be back there for the 2012 World T20. The team won four consecutive ACC T20 Cup wins (a tournament held among Asian nations, but excluding the four test teams) and were winners and then runners-up in their first two appearances in the ICC Intercontinental Cup (four-dayers). Should they triumph in the 2015-17 event, and they have a draw and win already from their first two games, then there’s a playoff in 2018 against the lowest ranking test side – win that playoff series and they’ll gain temporary test status.

In February 2012 Afghanistan played Pakistan in an ODI at Sharjah – their first ever ODI against a test nation, and it was a fitting opponent that day as Pakistan has played such a big part in the development of Afghan cricket (the PCB to this day is running coaching and development clinics in the country as well as sharing facilities). In 2013 Afghanistan were awarded ICC associate status – meaning more money and more exposure. To go from a division five affiliate to a full associate in a mere five years is unprecedented. They then, of course, went on to qualify for the 2015 World Cup in New Zealand and Australia – and they did so automatically with a second place finish in the WLC Championship (behind Ireland). At that tournament they’d beat Scotland on the back of 96 from Samiullah Shenwari – their first ever win at a major international competition. A few months later they beat Zimbabwe (in ZIM) 3-2 in an ODI series to become the first non-test playing team to defeat a test nation in a multi-game series. Now they’ve beaten the West Indies in the World T20.

It was at the World Cup that they really started winning the neutral fans. That was where their incredible rise began to get the conversation it deserved, although if you get the opportunity there’s a wonderful documentary from 2010 called ‘Out of the Ashes’ that follows the nation’s… well the title says enough.

That’s the thing, we’re not just talking about some Hollywood underdog story here. This also happens to be the national team of a country ravaged by war for much of the past two decades. You can say the Windies took it easy, and of course they did because that’s always how they always play cricket, but this Afghanistan team caught them off-guard with a full-on spin attack that proved the best strategy anyone’s managed against them so far. Plus, look, it wasn’t just this one game either. A few days earlier they had England – the other semi-final progressors from their group – at 57/6 before Moeen Ali hauled them through to 142. Afghanistan were held to 127/9. They didn’t win, but for a while there you could almost hear the sound of smashing teapots with every lost English wicket.

"All our previous matches have been close. There haven't been one-sided matches, it's not like a team makes 200 against us and we are all out for 100 or 150. The team has been fighting, and the belief was always there. But Afghanistan haven't had that exposure of winning against big teams. The finishing point has not been seen yet. But now that we have won this, it will definitely help. And we had a strong belief that if we can come so close, we can win too. Today it has happened. We could have won against England, there was a close game against Sri Lanka too. So we knew we had the potential to win, but you still need that win. The more we play against big teams, the more we'll learn, and can perform even better." – Inzamam Ul-Haq, cricket legend and Afghanistan coach.

It’s a cliché but it’s so refreshing, so endearing, to see a team play with as much passion as this Afghanistan team does every time they take the field. It’s even better when you can see the progress that they’re making despite all the chips being stacked against them. There’s so much money in cricket these days and most of it doesn’t filter down below the top few teams. All the power lies with England, India and Australia with little thought given to expanding the world of cricket (and thus splitting the profits). When Afghanistan first made the World T20 in 2010, there were 12 teams, four qualifiers. This time there were only ten and two qualifiers. Despite the ever-improving stakes of the likes of Ireland and Afghanistan the top tier is going about shrinking itself and so as great as it's been, it’ll probably be a few years before we next see Hamid Hassan steaming in to bowl with his headband and a scowl, before we next see Mohammad Shahzad tonking one over cover, before we next see Shapoor Zadran’s hair flowing smoothly in the wind as he hits his delivery stride, before we next see young Rashid Khan giving it a rip with his leggies.

But that’s just cricket. Unfortunately.