Asif Khan thrilled to join same list as hero Shahid Afridi after making history in Nepal

World cricket was given one of its great Cinderella stories in Kathmandu on Thursday.

Nepal, so often Associate cricket’s most likeable if occasionally down-on-its-luck outfit, had been nowhere. But they will get to go to the ball after an extraordinary transformation.

Over the course of the past month or so, they won 11 out of 12 matches to clinch their place at the Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe in June.

At no point in the three-and-a-half years of Cricket World Cup League 2 had a side enjoyed quite such a spell of dominance. Nepal had found the magic formula right when they needed it.

Amid all the drama at a pulsating Tribhuvan University ground, UAE played the role of Ugly Sisters with great gusto.

They might have lost, amid much acrimony in the gloom of a bad-light-stopped-play, DLS controversy, but they gained much in how they performed.

Finally, it appears they have some fight about them. That quality had been damagingly lacking in a string of supine displays over the past month, which put their own place at the global Qualifier in jeopardy, as well as their one-day international status.

That pluck was best exemplified by Junaid Siddique, the UAE seamer, who bowled eight overs with a suspected broken thumb on his bowling hand.

It was also shown by the UAE boundary riders, a number of whom had plastic bottles as well as abuse thrown towards them, as the tension was stretched almost to breaking point towards the end.

Three Nepal players, including captain Rohit Paudel, had to run to the crowd and appeal for calm at the atmosphere turned from festive to febrile.

Even with the bat, there was much to cheer as the touring batters finally remembered which end of the thing they are supposed to hold. Vriitya