Rashid Khan in dreamland as Afghanistan reach T20 World Cup semi-finals ahead of Australia

In May 2003, just after Australia had won the Cricket World Cup for the third time, a trial was held in Kabul with a view to setting up an Afghanistan cricket team for the first time.

The aspiring players were newly returned from exile across the border in Pakistan, where they had learnt the favourite sport of their hosts while housed in refugee camps.

That team of pioneers started its competitive life on international cricket’s furthest extremities, playing against the likes of Japan, Jersey and Botswana.

None of the players had been on an airplane before their debut cricket tour. In transit in Dubai for the first time, they could not work out how to use the escalators.

Among them was Mohammed Nabi, the champion allrounder who has – 21 years later – just helped his side beat Australia to a place in a T20 World Cup semi-final.

Afghanistan’s team of cricketing supermen will play South Africa in Trinidad in the early hours of Thursday morning UAE time. Such has been their fairytale rise in the sport, there is no reason why they will feel further progress in the competition is beyond them.

On Tuesday, they sealed their place in the last four in the most gripping fashion imaginable – and at the expense of Australia.

They navigated rain delays in St Vincent, score revisions, an iffy pitch, and a Bangladesh side who themselves had a shot at advancing to clinch their place.

“It is like a dream for us as a team being in a semi-final,” Rashid Khan, the Afghanistan captain, said after the eight-run win over Bangladesh that sent them through in second place in the group behind India.

“It is all about how we started the tournament. The belief came from when we beat New Zealand. It is unbelievable. I don’t have the words to describe