NEW DELHI: Afghanistan’s hopes of reaching the Super Eights in the T20 World Cup are no longer in their own hands despite a win over UAE on Monday. Captain Rashid Khan said the team is focused on playing its brand of cricket and making the country proud even if their journey ends early.

After Afghanistan’s five wicket victory over UAE, South Africa national cricket team confirmed their place in the Super Eights from Group D with six points from three games.

New Zealand national cricket team, who have four points from three matches, can grab the second spot if they beat Canada national cricket team in Chennai on Tuesday.

If that happens, Afghanistan who sit on two points from three games will be knocked out even if they win their final group match against Canada on February 19 in Chennai.

"Hoping for the best. Yes, (we) still have a little bit of hope, we can make it to the next stage and we just need to come up with a positive mindset (against Canada)," Rashid said at the post match presentation.

"Next game, you never know, it's a T20 game, we'll have to come up with a good brand of cricket. Even if we don't make it to the next round, we want to play with the same brand of cricket and make the country and our people proud and happy."

Rashid reflects on campaign

The star spinner said it was important for the side to finally get points on the board after a heartbreaking loss to South Africa that was decided in the second Super Over.

"Happy to finish with a win, it's important to have points in a T20 World Cup. To restrict them (UAE) under 160 was a good effort, we pulled things back, but we didn't do well in the first 10 overs. That's been a problem for us in all the games and something we need to work on," he said.

"We know how aggressive he (Rahmanullah Gurbaz) is. He goes out with a positive mindset, it doesn't always work, but it's good for the team when he gets going. We've quite a lot of experience, Azmat (Azmatullah Omarzai) has played a lot, (Mohammad) Nabi is the most experienced guy in the team. It's always good to have experience and that's something most important."

Player of the Match Azmatullah Omarzai, who picked up 4 for 15 in four overs and scored 40 not out off 21 balls, said his focus was on hitting hard lengths.

"I was trying to bowl in the hard length and hit the pitch hard. "It was funny, first ball was a wicket, but the ball didn't didn't carry. I took four wickets again. That first wicket got the momentum for us.

"When I went to bat, I looked at the scoreboard. There were a lot of balls (left) for us. We needed to play straight and rotate the strike and I was speaking to my partner, (to) just play straight and we were waiting for the bad ball.

"It was a good game where everyone did really well and everyone did hard work (on the South Africa game), but the result did not work our way, but we came back really well and hope we will do it again in the next match."

UAE rue missed chances with bat and ball

UAE captain Muhammad Waseem felt his team ended up 10 to 15 runs short with the bat.

"To be honest, it was a good game. Boys fought well. We were short by 10-15 runs. We lost two early wickets, but the way Alishan (Sharafu) and Sohaib (Khan) batted was good. Ali got out at the wrong time and we fell short by 10-15 runs.

"With the ball, we gave 2-3 extra boundaries and that cost us the game. We wanted to fight till the last ball, we were hungry for victory, excellent effort in the field by the boys. Last game against South Africa, it's a different ball game, we'll come prepared to show the world our talent."

(With PTI Inputs)