Fairy tales story for Afghanistan as they qualify for the next stage of ICC World Cup qualifier 2018. Afghanistan's passage into the Super Six was sealed after Nepal came back strongly to defeat Hong Kong on Monday (March 12). The result left all three teams with two points but Afghanistan's better net run rate helped them go through despite having a disappointing tournament by their standards. The Afghanistan players would have had their hearts in their mouth at one point in time during the tricky chase. After putting on 41 for the opening wicket, Nepal lost five wickets for the addition of only 25 runs to find themselves reeling at 66 for 5 while chasing 154 runs.

For Nepal, Rohit Kumar and Sompal Kami then batted with purpose to ensure there were no more hiccups in the chase. The duo was involved in an unbroken stand of 89 runs that sealed the win for Nepal. Earlier in the day, led by Sandeep Lamichhane's three-wicket haul, Nepal Kept Hong Kong to just 153. From 53 for 1, Hong Kong slipped to 58 for 4, and from that stage, they never managed to recover.

Brief scores: Hong Kong 153 in 48.2 overs (Nizakat Khan 47; Sandeep Lamichhane 3-17, Basant Regmi 2-20) lost to Nepal 155/5 in 40.4 overs (Rohit Kumar 48*, Sompal Kami 37*; Ehsan Khan 2-34, Aizaz Khan 2-40) by 5 wickets