I think it's early to expect such things from Afghanistan, they have already done justice with there performance. They have won 3 games and looks like wining another game today. This WC is confined around 4 teams aka Aus, NZ, SA and India there is hardly anything left for others. This World Cup is a nightmare for SL as they have faced huge defeats this time.
So far it looks like Afghanistan are playing very well. Currently 13 over is running they are lose only they are two wicket and there is 71. If this continues if Afghanistan can keep their wicket and play without rushing then I think Afghanistan will win today. But Netherlands can't be taken too lightly because they too have come up with a fairly good performance, now if their bowling performance can be improved then Afghanistan can lose Afghanistan has many records of losing such matches.
Afghanistan A very sensible and mature knock by Rahmat Shah 52 off 54. Seems like he has worked on his strike rate as well. At present Afghanistan scored 136/3 wickets in 24th Over. Afghanistan are now so close to win this match they need 44 more runs in 26 overs and they have 7 wickets in hand. A brilliant innings of Rahamt Shah fueled with 8 fours has ended in Lucknow against Netherlands.
The good thing about yesterday's win was that Afghanistan chased the total professionally and they made sure that they do not lose many wickets and also achieved the total in less over to increase their overall run rate. They achieved the target of 179 runs in only 31.3 overs and hence it was a big win for them.
With this win, Afghanistan is in the number 5th position on the points table. However if we compare the run rate of New Zealand (who also have 8 points) but in the 4th position, they have a positive run rate of 0.484 while Afghanistan has a negative rate of -0.330. This means that Afghanistan has to play and win the remaining matches with an even better run rate in case Afghanistan and New Zealand points are tied.
New Zealand, Australia and Pakistan will play their matches today and after today's result, the situation will be even more clearer as who will have more chances to be going to the semi-finals.