Four spinners and top order power: How Afghanistan made history

But this excellent crop of players have added two huge scalps to that previous sole victory over Scotland in 2015.

And arguably Monday’s win over Pakistan was even more impressive than beating England in Delhi.

Losing the toss and being made to bowl first, Afghanistan captain Shahidi said he would also have batted first, and targeted restricting Pakistan to under 250.

And while his bowling attack didn’t quite manage that, the game went almost entirely to plan for Afghanistan from that moment on.

Chennai is one of the most spin-friendly grounds at this tournament, and particularly when the black soil wickets are used, as they were on this occasion.

And Afghanistan grasped that opportunity with an aggressive team selection, bringing in Noor Ahmad to give a fourth front-line spin-bowling option in their attack.

The selection was an inspired choice, with Noor taking the key wickets of Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan in his 3/49 from ten overs.

Afghanistan’s spinners bowled 38 overs between them, with Mohammad Nabi (1/31) and Rashid Khan (0/41) proving particularly difficult to get away for Pakistan’s batters.

And that pressure left Pakistan with a lot to do in the death overs to reach a challenging total.

Iftikhar Ahmed did his best with 40 from 27 balls at the close, but the work of the spinners ensured that Afghanistan had a chaseable target, and it was notable that Pakistan’s spinners struggled to have the same impact in the second innings.

Awesome Afghanistan beat Pakistan for first time in Chennai classic

Afghanistan’s young opening pair helped them get off to a fast start in their previous win against England, and they were even more impressive against Pakistan in Chennai.

The 21-year-old Rahmanullah Gurbaz set the tone when he hit Shaheen Shah Afridi for a boundary off the very first delivery of the innings, and it was his aggression through the powerplay that allowed Afghanistan to sit in and not take too many risks through the middle overs.

Dismissed for 65 from 53 balls, Gurbaz had already done a lot to get his team on top in the match.

Fellow 21-year-old opener Ibrahim Zadran oozes class, and his average of 47.47 from 23 One Day International matches so far in his career underlines just what a brilliant batter he is.

And Zadran’s crucial 87 earned him the Player of the Match award.

After a fast start, Zadran showed his versatility by bedding in and forging a second, more subdued partnership worth 60 runs with Rahmat Shah to set up the winning platform.

But for Afghanistan, possibly the most encouraging part of the win was that it wasn’t their two star openers who got the job done.

So much of Afghanistani batting has hinged on the fortunes of Gurbaz and Zadran in recent times. But it was the more experienced pair of Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi who stepped up on this occasion for their side.

The scoring rate of both was particularly impressive, and quite against the grain, particularly for Rahmat.

Rahmat’s brilliant 77 came off 84 balls and is surely one of the biggest knocks of his career.

And captain Shahidi fittingly hit the winning runs on a triumph of an evening for the skipper, who finished unbeaten on 48* from 45.